le petit éléphant
In the great forest a little elephant was born, his name was Babar.
Histoire De Babar le petit éléphant
Hachette, Paris, 1931.
First edition, first issue. Folio. Cloth backed pictorial boards. In the remains of the original unprinted glassine wrapper. Pictorial endpapers. Illustrated in colour by the author. A fine, bright copy, exceptionally clean, with just the tiniest of rubs to the corners. Well preserved by the, now very worn and split, glassine.
The first Babar book, which did not appear in English until 1934.
Babar the elephant, like so many children's stories, began as a bedtime story by Cécile de Brunhoff and was then elaborated upon and brought to life by her husband Jean de Brunhoff. It is an oversized and brightly coloured production which combined with the delightful adventures of the eponymous elephant could not fail to charm readers.
Due to the combination of rarity, popularity and fragility the first edition of the first Babar book is extremely hard to find in decent condition.
PROVENANCE: H. Bradley Martin (his sale Jan 1990, bookplate to chemise)
Stock ID: 40224
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