Description
I’m pleased to offer here one of the most desirable Oz books, after the 1st edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This is the rare UK motion picture edition, circa 1940 & timed with the MGM movie release in Great Britain: The Wizard of Oz photoplay edition. Contains eight beautiful color stills and publicity photos from the movie, unlike the much more common American movie edition that contains the traditional Denslow plates. The plates in this book were made by colorizing the black & white photos, and are especially striking, particularly the frontispiece of Judy Garland. What’s extra nice is the book is in the harder-to-find Binding B, with is a plainer, cloth binding than Binding A (no priority known according to the Book Collector’s Guide to L Frank Baum.) There are several full-page (and some smaller) black and white Denslow illustrations in addition to the 8 colored photos.
This book is in good condition overall. The cloth has sunning (fading) to the book edges and spine as shown. Inside, hinges are tight, and there is a pencil inscription and notation on the front endpaper. As usual, there is substantial age toning opposite frontispiece, with a small edge chip, and some foxing opposite the color plates. These are in very good condition overall. Pages have light staining and some of the front pages have wear at the edges that might be a tooth mark? One page has a little loss at top. But overall, a decent copy of a rare edition and binding state.
