THE SHIP THAT SAILED TO MARS: A FANTASY. Told and Pictured by William M. Timlin. London: George G. Harrap & Company Limited, n.d. [1923]. Large quarto, 96 leaves of thick gray paper comprising 48 leaves with mounted text printed in black, blue and green and 48 leaves with mounted full-page color plates, original gray boards with white Japan vellum shelf back, front cover lettered in black, spine panel lettered and decorated in gold. First edition, British issue. Timlin (1892-1943), a UK-born artist and architect of note, illustrated books on South Africa (where he resided from 1912) and achieved success as a magazine illustrator, his etchings being regarded as among the best produced in the United Kingdom. THE SHIP THAT SAILED TO MARS, Timlin's "only fiction, is more fantasy than science fiction, though it does describe in glowing detail the fitting up of a spaceship and its trip to Mars. But Timlin's astonishingly evocative illustrations to the text, for which the original quarto edition of the book is now heavily collected, strongly underline the surreal nature of the tale." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 1230. Only 2000 copies were printed (including 250 copies prepared for distribution in America under the Stokes imprint). Harrap's remaining stock of the book and the original drawings were destroyed by enemy action in early 1941 and the first edition is scarce. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy Volume II, p. 109. Bleiler (1978), p. 194. Reginald 14133. Attractive contemporary private owner's bookplate affixed to the front paste-down. Spine ends and bottom corner tips lightly bruised, touch of offsetting to the paste-downs and small closed tear (less than 1/4 inch) affecting the bottom of the first six pages, a near fine copy in near fine gray paper dust jacket with just a small closed tear at bottom of the rear hinge and only a bit of light soil and wear to the edges. A stunning copy of one the most lavish children's fantasies of the period. In a custom quarter maroon leather slipcase. (#119415).
Price: $12,500.00
No statement of printing.