The Wonder World Fairy Tale Book

By Gwen Bourne. Drawings by Harold Gaze. London : Cecil Palmer, 1931. Quarto, decorated cloth (lightly rubbed), illustrated endpapers by Harold Gaze, pp. xii; 122, nine colour plates, border illustrations, small stains to a few leaves, a very good copy.

A rare children’s book filled with Harold Gaze’s inventive illustrations. 

Harold Gaze was born in New Zealand in 1884 and studied at art school in London during the First World War. He then moved to Melbourne where he wrote and illustrated a number of books for children. In 1927, after a brief second sojourn in London, he settled in Pasadena, California. In California Gaze worked with Disney and continued to publish. He remained in America until his death in 1963. Many of the details of Gaze’s life have proven elusive to researchers, but his unique and creative children’s stories and delightful imagery remain sought after by collectors.