The Queen Of The Pirate Isle. By Bret Harte. Illustrated By Kate Greenaway. Engraved And Printed By Edmund Evans. Harte, Bret. Greenaway, Kate, Illustrated By.

FIRST EDITION. 8vo. 8.75 x 6.5 inches. 58 pp. Bound in original unbleached linen, with gilt and black titles and colour blocks of Greenaway drawings on both boards. All edges gilt. Minor wear to extremities, but otherwise a very good clean copy. Illustrated by 28 Kate Greenaway colour paintings, including frontispiece and title page vignette. Children's story set in a California mining camp during the Gold Rush period, by US short story write, Bret Harte (1836-1902). The illustrator,Catherine (Kate) Greenaway (1846-1901) was the daughter of a London wood engraver and spent twelve years of art college education in the city. Her work was greatly influenced by childhood holidays in the Nottinghamshire countryside and she chose a vaguely Regency style of costume for her figures. Her first book illustration was published in 1867, but she did not achieve widespread recognition until Edmund Evans (1826-1901), wood engraver and colour printer, printed her illustrated book of verses, Under the Window, in 1879. It sold 100,000 copies in her lifetime. Greenaway's paintings were reproduced by chromoxylography, the colours being printed from hand-engraved wood blocks by Evans. Becoming an artistic celebrity she came under the influence of the ageing John Ruskin who greatly admired her female figures. Along with Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott, Kate Greenaway is ranked as one of the three great illustrators of Victorian children's books and her work remains in print today. ILLUSTRATED/CHILDRENS JUVENILE LIT. FICTION CHILDREN'S AMERICAS 19TH CENTURY ILLUSTRATED FIRST EDITION ILLUSTRATED/CHILDRENS