KINGSLEY, Charles. The Water Babies. Illustrated in Colour by A. E. Jackson, London, Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, [n.d.][ca. 1920].
(240 x 170 mm) pp. 252. With illustrated frontispiece and 15 full page, tipped in plates of illustrations. Provenance detailed below, owned by a child in India along the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Rail in Lahkeri; bought from Thacker and Co., in Mumbai (Bombay). Bound in seafoam grey with large stamping of child riding a fish in blue and gold, with title and author in gold as well. Some bumping to the spine and some separation between gatherings, but overall VERY GOOD copy.
Clearly a child’s very prized possession, with “To Barbara with love from Tate, Lakheri” inscribed on the front paste down and “Barbara Robinson, Lakheri B[ombay] B[aroda] + C[entral] I[ndia] R[ai]l[wa]y, Rajputana C. India” on the verso of the half-title— and just for safe measure “Please return to Barbara Robinson, The Oasis, Lakheri, B[ombay] B[aroda] + C[entral] I[ndia] R[ai]l[wa]y, Rajputana, India.” The book bears a small sticker on the righthand corner of the front pastedown shedding light on its journey, as it was likely sold in Thacker and Co., Booksellers and Stationers in Bombay. The book, printed in London, arrived in what is now Mumbai on the central western shore of India, and from there, it was transported north and east to a little girl in Lakheri, just on the edge of the desert— a poignant place for watery book to be so cherished.
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