Here is a beautiful little copy of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, illustrated by Wizard of Oz illustrator John R. Neill. Copyright 1915 by Reilly & Britton, this is a slightly later, ca 1922 Reilly & Lee printing. One of the rare Children’s Red Book series, it includes Aladdin as well as the classic Robin Hood. Contains lavish color endpapers and color illustrations on many of the 58 pages. No advertisements In the rear.
Book is in good but not very good condition. Paper covered boards show wear to edges, rear cover and fading to spine. Endpapers are clean and binding is tight. There is slight wrinkling at base of early pages, suggesting that this part of book may have gotten wet at some point, but no soiling or odor. Ownership page blank, other pages nice, still very attractive little book.
Here is a beautiful little copy of the classic Peter Rabbit, illustrated by Wizard of Oz illustrator John R. Neill, with original dust jacket over blue cloth binding. Copyright 1908 by Reilly & Britton, this is a circa 1922 (last title listed in rear advertisement is Kabumpo in Oz) Reilly & Lee printing. One of the Children’s Red Books series, it includes the Dick Wittington and his Cat story as well. Contains lavish color endpapers, a color title page and frontispiece, and color illustrations on many of the 58 pages.
Book is in very good condition. The cover pastedown is clean and bright, and cloth is in good shape, but there is some discoloration on back cover near spine as shown. Inside, endpapers and pages are nice and clean w/o tears or writing, although ownership page is filled in. Jacket is good, basically complete but with some edge tears and small chips as shown. In a mylar-type jacket for protection. Tough to find with in the jacket in any condition, and one of the most beloved titles in the series.
Here is a scarce book, The Little Lame Prince, illustrated by Wizard of Oz illustrator John R. Neill. Copyright 1908 by Reilly & Britton, this is one of the Children’s Stories that Never Grow Old series. This is the earliest printing of this series in red paper covered boards. Unlike the later Children’s Red Book series, it just contains the one story but still has the lavish color endpapers, a color title page and frontispiece, and color illustrations on many of the 29 numbered pages. This is an original Reilly & Britton edition, first of the many Neill books they published.
The book is in only fair condition, with wear typical of these fragile paper-covered board books. Both covers have substantial edge wear and corner bumping, the fragile spine is missing its paper cover. Inside, the text block has come loose from the cover, and there is some tearing to the endpapers over the joint. The pages are in good condition except for a little glued paper residue on the front free endpaper. The Book Belongs To block is blank. See also the last photo for other books in the series that I’m listing today.
Here is a scarce book, Snow White and Rose Red, illustrated by Wizard of Oz illustrator John R. Neill. Copyright 1908 by Reilly & Britton, this is one of the Children’s Stories that Never Grow Old series. This is the earliest printing of this series in red paper covered boards. Unlike the later Children’s Red Book series, it just contains the one story but still has the lavish color endpapers, a color title page and frontispiece, and color illustrations on many of the 29 numbered pages. This is an original Reilly & Britton edition, first of the many Neill Snow Whites they published.
The book is in only fair condition, with wear typical of these fragile paper-covered board books. The front cover has age darkening and corner bumping, the fragile spine is missing its paper cover, and there is some edge wear. Inside, the text block has come loose from the cover, though the pages are otherwise in good condition. The Book Belongs To block is filled in with a 1909 date. See also the last photo for other books in the series that I’m listing today.
Here is a scarce book, Robinson Crusoe, His Man Friday, illustrated by Wizard of Oz illustrator John R. Neill. Copyright 1908 by Reilly & Britton, this is one of the Children’s Stories that Never Grow Old series. This is the earliest printing of this series–it’s a dark blue binding with daisies. Unlike the later Children’s Red Book series, it just contains the one story but still has the lavish color endpapers, a color title page and frontispiece, and color illustrations on many of the 29 numbered pages. This is an original Reilly & Britton edition, first of the Neill Crusoes they published.
The book is in good condition, with wear typical of these fragile paper-covered boards. The front cover is nice, with faint old pencil writing, the fragile spine is missing about half of the paper cover, and the rear cover has some reddish scuffing. Inside is very good–the endpapers are clean and the binding is still snug, Book Belongs To box is blank. Pages have some finger soiling as shown. Still a quite attractive book.
See the last photo for the others in this series I’m listing today.
Here is a hard to find edition of a book, Black Beauty by Sewell, illustrated by Wizard of Oz illustrator John R. Neill. Copyright 1908, this is the 1st edition by Reilly & Britton, one of the rare Children’s Stories that Never Grow Old series. Even better, it’s from the personal collection of Oz Club great, Fred Meyer. This title was bound with a bright red cover with inset illustrations. Unlike the later Children’s Red Book series, it just contains the one story but still has the lavish color endpapers, a color title page and frontispiece, and color illustrations on many of the 29 numbered pages.
In quite nice condition for this fragile binding style! The paper over the spine is usually gone on this edition, but is almost entirely intact on this copy, just a ittle wear along top edge (oddly, the spine paper is white while the rest of the cover is red). The cover itself has just light scuffing to the red, and the interior illustration is very beautiful. Inside condition is near fine–both endpapers are very clean and the binding is tight. The Book Belongs To box is blank, the pages are clean and no writing or tears. A very good copy of this scarce and fragile 1st with Neill illustrations. Will come with a statement of provenance attested that it belonged to Fred. See also the last image for other books in this series that I’m now listings.
Here is a scarce book, Rab and His Friends, illustrated by Wizard of Oz illustrator John R. Neill. Copyright 1908 by Reilly & Britton, this is one of the Children’s Stories that Never Grow Old series. This is the earliest printing of this series in thin paper covered boards–unlike the later Children’s Red Book series, it just contains the one story and has the lavish color endpapers, a color title page and frontispiece, and color illustrations on many of the 28 numbered pages. This is an original Reilly & Britton first edition. The story is about a scruffy mastiff with one eye from fighting, yet loves his master and mistress more than life itself.
The book is in fair condition, with wear typical of these fragile little books. The covers have some scuffing and the spine paper is mostly missing. Inside is better, with stapled binding intact and Book Belongs To box filled in in pencil, and pages with light soiling but generally clean and without tears or major flaws. Priced at a discount due to condition.
Here is a nice copy of the classic Peter Rabbit, illustrated by Wizard of Oz illustrator John R. Neill. Original copyright 1908 by Reilly & Britton, this is an early, circa 1918 Reilly & Lee printing (last title listed in rear advertisement is Tin Woodman of Oz). One of the Children’s Red Book series, it includes the Dick Wittington and his Cat story as well. Binding with red paper-covered boards. Contains lavish color endpapers, a color title page and frontispiece, and color illustrations on many of the 58 pages.
Book is in good plus condition. The cover is nice and bright, with a little wear and tear to paper on spine, wear to corners, rear cover, etc. Light cracking to hinges, as normal with this binding, which is is tight. Endpapers still look nice with “Klein” in pen. Ownership page filled out with 1918 date, which is very early for Reilly & Lee. Pages in very good condition with light age toning. See my other “Oz Illustrator” listings for more books in this series!
Between 1908 and about 1930, Oz book publisher Reilly & Britton (later, Relly & Lee) published a series of children’s fantasy tales illustrated by the great John R Neill. (John R Neill replaced W W Denslow as illustrator of the L Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz books in 1904.) The publishers got a lot of mileage out of Neill’s art for these little books!
The first “Children’s Stories that Never Grow Old” series of 24 titles was published in paper covered boards in four different cover designs (two of them shown at the top of the photo). These fragile little books quickly gave way to the “Children’s Red Books”, which included two stories in one book, in both cloth and paper-covered bindings. Andersen’s Fairy Tales, featuring The Ugly Duckling and Rip van Winkle, is shown on the far right. Later versions of the “Children’s RedBooks” were even issued in blue cloth before they renamed the series the “Children’s Own Books” in the mid 1920’s! If you’re lucky, these can sometimes be found with the original dust jacket, like Aladdin shown in the middle. The publisher also used Neill’s illustrations in a compendium book called “Children’s Stories that Never Grow Old” in 1908, as well as in the 1910 “Turnover Books“, which featured double cover art, with a different story on each side of the book.
There were other, related titles published as well. For further info on this crazy, collectible series, see Greg Hunter’s article in the Spring 2013 Baum Bugle. You can find more from Wonderful Books of Oz here.
