NIELSEN, Kay (illustrator). Romer WILSON (author). Red Magic; A Collection of the World's Best Fairy Tales From All Countries.

NIELSEN, Kay (illustrator). Romer WILSON (author). Red Magic; A Collection of the World's Best Fairy Tales From All Countries.NIELSEN, Kay (illustrator). Romer WILSON (author). Red Magic; A Collection of the World's Best Fairy Tales From All Countries. London: Jonathan Cape. 1930. 8vo. Publisher's red cloth lettered in gilt to spine, top edges red; pp. [iv] + 368; with coloured frontispiece and 7 other fine, and striking, coloured plates accompanied by a quantity of crisp black and white images, decorated initials, and vignettes; a very good sound copy with unobtrusive

NIELSEN, Kay (illustrator). Romer WILSON (author). Red Magic; A Collection of the World's Best Fairy Tales From All Countries. London: Jonathan Cape. 1930.

8vo. Publisher's red cloth lettered in gilt to spine, top edges red; pp. [iv] + 368; with coloured frontispiece and 7 other fine, and striking, coloured plates accompanied by a quantity of crisp black and white images, decorated initials, and vignettes; a very good sound copy with unobtrusive mottling to a portion of the upper board and, to a lesser exent, to the top corner of the lower cover; internally very clean and fresh throughout, free from the internal spotting which blights many copies of the scarce book.

First edition. The last, and possibly the scarcest, of the works comprehensively illustrated by the Danish artist Kay Nielsen (1886-1957) who was one of the leading Golden Age talents and the most famous Scandinavian artists of that period.

Nielsen received his first commission, to illustrate a gift book of fairy tales for Hodder and Stoughton in 1913, producing 24 stunning coloured plates for In Powder and Crinoline. The following year he published the work for which he is best known, East of the Sun and West of the Moon. His industry took him to England and New York but in 1917 he returned to Denmark where he cemented his reputation by painting stage scenery and working on set design through to the 1920s. A handful of other fine fairy tale commissions followed, including Hansel and Gretel, and Other Stories by the Brothers Grimm before Nielsen left for California, to work in the burgeoning world of the film industry. He went on to contribute to several Walt Disney productions including, most famously, "Fantasia" and his influence has been acknowledged for inspiring the visual development of "Frozen".

SKU: 2119977