SIGNED BY ROCKWELL KENT
KENT, Rockwell. A Birthday Book. New York: Random House, 1931. Quarto, original pictorial cloth, silk endpapers, uncut. $800.
Signed limited first edition, number 1495 of 1850 beautifully illustrated copies made by The Pynson Printers and signed by Rockwell Kent.
Considered one of the finest books by artists for children, this work is also one of Rockwell Kent's least famous. Seamlessly combining his characteristic strong lines with fluid motion in a series of black-and-white wood-block prints surrounded by elaborate wood-cut borders, Kent both wrote and illustrated this captivating story. The narrative, bearing very faint similarities to Sleeping Beauty, is written as a bittersweet tug-of-war between two fairies, kind and malicious, who bestow a series of alternating gifts upon a little girl. Printed on the recto of each leaf only. Without scarce original acetate.
Interior fine, lightest edge-wear to near-fine cloth.