[Sleigh, Bernard- Striking and Extremely Scarce] A Faerie Pageant

Birmingham: Printed at the Kynoch Press, 1924. First edition. First edition. 5 x 6 1/2 inches. Oblong. with linen spine and green color pictorial paper covered boards picturing a wonderful scene of deer pulling a carriage with faeries dancing about and flying over a rising moon, with a different or continuing illustration of the rear cover. A beautiful and very scarce allegorical book by Bernard Sleigh, one of the leading artists of the Birmingham School of Arts and Crafts, and student of Arthur Gaskin. #30 of 475 numbered copies. Twelve illustrations drawn by Sleigh on separate pages and engraved on wood by Ivy A Ellis and the author, and bound by Frank Garrett (interestingly the publisher's cover label has the title: "A Faery Pageant)." Green printed decorative initials throughout by Bernard Sleigh. Among other noted expertises, Bernard Sleigh was an English mural painter, stained-glass artist, illustrator and wood engraver, and a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. As a young man, Sleigh was greatly inspired by the work of George MacDonald and William Morris. Rubbing to boards, and wear to spine, particularly at spine ends. Some foxing to pages. Very scarce.