1456600 1926 Margaret Evans Price. Enchantment Tales for Children.

 

Enchantment Tales for Children.  Chicago and New York: Rand McNally & Company, (1926). Single volume, measuring 10.5 x 8 inches: 118. Original blue ribbed cloth boards lettered in gilt, color pictorial pastedown to front board, pictorial endpapers. Fourteen full-page color plates, additional color illustrations throughout text. Gift inscription to front free endpaper, dated 1927, and penciled owner’s name and address to half-title. Spine gilt faded, light rubbing to spine ends and corners.

 

First edition of this popular illustrated collection of Greek myths for children, featuring the legends of Pandora, Ulysses, Circe, Perseus, Orpheus, and Midas, among others: "take away this dreadful gift. My daughter has become a golden image. Everything I touch grows hard and cold. Give me back my little girl, or let me die!"  Golden Age illustrator Margaret Evans Price (1888-1973) was a successful commercial artist for decades: her streamlined gods and goddesses in this volume reflect the influence of Jazz Age fashion plates. Two years after the publication of Enchantment Tales for Children, she and her husband Irving Price joined forces with Herman Fisher to found Fisher-Price Toys, where she served as art director. A near-fine copy of a striking book.