Coppertop Cruises : The wonderful voyage of the good ship “Queercraft”

Melbourne : Melbourne Publishing House, [1920]. Large octavo, papered boards with pasted on illustration, in illustrated dust jacket (foxed and stained, small loss to rear panel), paper adhesion marks to front free-endpaper, pp 133, illustrated with colour plates and line drawings; scattered browning and foxing, last plate with corner crease. Rare in the dust jacket. Muir 2704.

Harold Gaze was born in New Zealand and studied at art school in London during the First World War, after which he moved to Melbourne where he wrote and illustrated a number of books for children. He later returned to London, then settled in Pasadena, California in 1927 where he resided until his death. In California he worked with Disney and continued to publish. Many of the details of Gaze’s life have proven elusive to researchers, but his unique and creative children’s stories and imagery remain delightful and sought after today.