W. S. Gilbert; Hesketh Pearson [Intro.]; Philip James [A Note on the Illustrator] — Selected Bab Ballads

Oxford, Allen Lane/University Press, 1955 . First edition. Cloth. A beautiful limited edition of W. S. Gilbert's delightful 'Bab Ballads', with a handwritten letter from Hilary Jenkinson to Philip James, contesting James's interpretations of Gilbert's illustrations. A limited edition of English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator W. S. Gilbert's collection of light verse, with this being one of 1,500 copies produced.The first edition to feature an introduction from Hesketh Pearson, and an essay on Gilbert as an illustrator by Philip James.With vignette illustrations by Gilbert himself throughout.With a two leaf loosely inserted handwritten signed letter about the work from Hilary Jenkinson, a British archivist and archival theorist, regarded as the figure most responsible for bringing continental European concepts of archival theory to the English-speaking world.The letter is addressed to Philip James, who writes on Gilbert's powers as an illustrator in this volume. He states 'I am very glad to have that charming Gilbert book [..] I am a little out of sympathy, I confess, with your last sentence. I concede the sentimental streak in Gilbert but that does not seem to be incompatible with that peculiar form of extravagance [..] and would Gilbert have stood for having his drawings improved by the engravers?&apos.The Bab Ballads became famous on their own, as well as being a source for plot elements, characters and songs that Gilbert used in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. In the publisher's original cloth binding, with pictorial onlay to front board centre. Fading to back strip, otherwise externally excellent. Internally, firmly bound. Pages clean and bright. Two leaves of handwritten letters loosely inserted. Near Fine . Ill.: W. S. Gilbert. Near Fine .