Publisher’s blue pictorial cloth with dark-blue vignette to upper board, dark-blue decorations and lettering to spine, top edges blue, other edges untrimmed, 6 colour plates, 7 full-page line drawings (all blank to reverse), 13 smaller drawings, 202 pages, 19.7 x 13.1 cm.

 Gordon Robinson was one of a very small number of illustrators to have produced two completely different sets of illustrations for ‘Alice in Wonderland’ – one set for the American publishers Sam’l Gabriel Sons & Company, in 1911, and one for the British market, a few years later. The publishing history of Robinson’s UK editions is very unclear, as several versions exist, none properly documented (Lovett completely confuses the British illustrations with the American, and does not describe any of the UK books). The earliest UK Robinson edition seems to have been published by Charles Kelly around 1916, further editions being published by Epworth, in various formats and bindings. This particular copy (published 1919 or earlier) is the only UK Robinson edition I have ever seen with 6 colour plates – all other versions (even the Kelly editions) having a smaller number. It may be that a Kelly edition exists with 6 colour plates, but I have yet to find one. I can see no other copy with 6 colour plates currently for sale online. Condition: Usual age-toning to paper, soiling, finger-marking and staining throughout, four consecutive leaves with diagonal creasing, impression of pencil outlining to one line drawing (erased), two short closed tears, foxing to plates plus adjoining text pages, usual foxing/offsetting to first and last page, untrimmed edges with usual bumping, browning, creasing, nicks and wear. Endpapers with a little soiling, foxing and offsetting; front endpapers with 1919 inscription “To dear Elsie, in loving remembrance of when she played the part of ‘Alice’ so nicely”, plus Elsie’s name and class number. Top of page block with darkening and soiling, loss to colour. Binding loose, with slight lean. Boards and spine with soiling, discoloration and marks as shown, usual bumping, softening and wear to extremities; head and foot of spine with a few small tears (with glue repairs).