This is a 1939 hardcover copy with the dust jacket, as issued by Frederick Stokes. It is noted on the pages that it was printed in Germany. The first American printings were issued in the early 1930s.
This 20 page book is dominated by the large and beautiful illustrations. The book is 11.5 x 9 inches. I wish I could run even more photos of the illustrations, for they are that wonderful. The style of the illustrations reminds me a bit of Ida Bohatta Murpurgo, another German illustrator who worked after Olfers -- I'd imagine the work of Olfers had some influence upon Bohatta.
What a wonderful gift to the vintage book collector, nature lover or gardener!
BOOK CONDITION
The cloth cover has the original dust jacket, although it is very chippy. There's some white paper laid under (but not attached) to the dust cover to give it some support and a protective mylar cover holds it in place. The pastedown design on the cloth cover is bright and very clean -- the only flaw to the cloth cover is bumping at the tips.
The interior has a gift inscription on a very sweet old bookplate inside the front cover. The pages show a good amount of age-related tanning, but because the color illustrations are so predominate, the tanning is not apparent. There is some fingerprinting and/or spotting around the edge of the pages, but it is not especially bothersome. The binding is in excellent condition and all of the pages are firmly attached in this beautiful book.
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