Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Stockholm/London: Zephyr Books/The Continental Book Company, [1946]. Illustrated by Mervyn Peake. First Edition Thus. Special Volume 67 of the Zephyr Book Series.

The first Mervyn Peake illustrated edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Upon publication of this edition, Frances Sarzano, biographer of John Tenniel, wrote that "[e]ven Tenniel-charmed eyes should be captivated by the unfamiliar Walrus and the Carpenter, by the Sorry White Knight (who pleads for a Peake 'Don Quixote'), by the Mad Hatter and the Duchess's choleric child, but sadly enough, it will be at least two years [as stated above, it was eight] before this Peake Alice can be published in England, owing to the artist's contracts with English publishers." ('Alphabet and Image', 1946).

Condition

Missing its original grey pictorial card covers. Binding relatively tight with no loose pages or significant straining. Pages mostly clean, a little dulled with age, with the exception of the odd thumb mark throughout and a small ink stain that starts at page 15 and diminishes as it reaches page 24 (not affecting legibility of text). A few ear marks and small, innocuous chips throughout. The pages with the Table of Contents are at the end of the book, and there is a page at the end (right before the Contents) that seems to have been torn from the book, but unfortunately no idea if this is the case or it is simply the way it was bound.

The dust wrapper has been rather amateurishly restored. It has been affixed to the front and rear endpapers of the book (with strips of tape); the dust jacket now technically acts as the book's covers (complete with the flaps). The condition of the dust wrapper is not very good, with tanning to extremities and significant portions rubbed off and worn, as pictured. There has also been an attempt to correct the lettering on the spine with pencil, however this could be erased.

Overall, a book in only acceptable condition with a largely clean text block; covers and spine missing, potentially one page missing at the end, and the dust wrapper inexpertly attached with tape to the book itself to act as covers and spine. We would qualify as a good reading copy and a rather good candidate for a rebind (not a collector's copy).