[Parrish, Maxfield] Baum, L. Frank. Proofs of the Illustrations by Maxfield Parrish for "Mother Goose in Prose"

(Chicago): Way & Williams, December 1897. First and limited edition, #23 of only 27 numbered copies. Small folio. Illustrated with 14 prints on Japanese vellum paper, each elaborately signed in pencil by Maxfield Parrish. Prints loose as issued, with colophon leaf, in publisher's quarter red cloth over wood-laminated board portfolio, stamped in red, red silk ties, wear along spine, lower tie separated but laid in, flaps worn; two prints with contemporary inscriptions on verso.

Very rare and complete set of original proof prints for L. Frank Baum's first children's book, Mother Goose in Prose, each signed by the illustrator, Maxfield Parrish. This was Parrish's first foray into book illustration, and this portfolio, one of only 27 ever made, is the only set of signed limited prints he ever created in his career. His highly imaginative and original work here brought him immediate recognition as a book illustrator, and whose quality set a precedent for Baum's later works.

Mother Goose in Prose preceded Baum's Wizard of Oz by three years, and "faithfully followed all the details given in the rhymes, as a child would demand; and yet he plausibly grounded the absurd circumstances by developing background and motivations that a child could accept as plausible." (Rogers, L. Frank Baum, Creator of Oz, 2002, p. 61). Baum's son, Harry, later recalled the work's genesis, explaining that he and his siblings would often ask questions regarding the nonsensical verse as they read the Mother Goose nursery rhymes, and that their father "made up little stories to explain these strange happenings to us." (p. 61).

This lot is located in Philadelphia.

Provenance

From the collection of Justin G. Schiller

[Parrish, Maxfield] Baum, L. Frank. Proofs of the Illustrations by Maxfield Parrish for "Mother Goose in Prose"