turnbullrarebooks: Here stand my books,...
Here stand my books, line upon line
They reach the roof, and row by row,
They speak of faded tastes of mine,
And things I did, but do not, know.~ Andrew Lang
This morocco binding rainbow comprises 11 of the 12 ‘Coloured’ Fairy Books, e.g. blue, red, yellow, green and so on, published between 1889 and 1910 by Scottish author Andrew Lang (1844-1912) and his wife Leonora (1851-1933).
They were collected by Alexander Turnbull, who had each volume rebound in the rich colour of each title fairy. Only the Violet Fairy Book (1901) is lacking for reasons unknown.
Rather than see them discarded, Turnbull requested his binders affix the original gold-blocked covers to the front pastedown (and the original spine strip to the rear pastedown) in each book as shown here in the Brown Fairy Book (1904) and in this previous Turnbull Rare Books post:
