1864 Legends of Number Nip : Elves, Gnomes : Folklore : Scottish Fairy Tales

Legends of Number Nip

By Mark Lemon

Illustrated by Charles Keene

Published by Macmillan & Co, London, 1864. First Edition. Scarce. Hardback, 8vo, cloth with gilt, black endpapers, pp xi, 140.

CONDITION
A good copy. The cloth binding is good, Endpapers good. All contents present and pages good throughout. Overall a good copy of this scarce work.

Legends of Number Nip is a book written by Mark Lemon that tells the story of a mischievous fairy, or Elfin King, named Number Nip. The book is set in the Scottish Highlands and is filled with magical tales about Number Nip and his antics. The book is divided into several chapters, each one featuring a different story about Number Nip and his adventures. The stories are filled with humor, adventure, and magic, making it an enjoyable read for children and adults alike.

Mark Lemon (30 November 1809, in London – 23 May 1870, in Crawley) was the founding editor of both Punch and The Field. He was also a writer of plays and verses.

In 1841 Lemon and Henry Mayhew conceived the idea of a humorous weekly paper to be called Punch, and when the first number was issued, in July 1841, were joint editors and with the printer and engraver equal owners. The paper was for some time unsuccessful, Lemon keeping it alive out of the profits of his plays. On the sale of Punch, Lemon became sole editor for the new proprietors. It remained under his control until his death, achieving remarkable popularity and influence.

Charles Samuel Keene (10 August 1823 – 4 January 1891) was an English artist and illustrator, who worked in black and white.

His earliest known design is the frontispiece, signed Chas. Keene, to The Adventures of Dick Boldhero in Search of his Uncle, &c. (Darton & Co., 1842). His term of apprenticeship over, he hired as studio an attic in the block of buildings standing, up to 1900, between the Strand and Holywell Street, and was soon hard at work for the Illustrated London News. At this time he was a member of the Artists Society in Clipstone Street, afterwards removed to the Langham studios.

In December 1851 he made his first appearance in Punch and, after nine years of steady work, was called to a seat at the famous table. It was during this period of probation that he first gave evidence of those transcendent qualities which make his work at once the joy and despair of his brother craftsmen. On the starting of Once a Week, in 1859, Keene's services were requisitioned, his most notable series in this periodical being the illustrations to "Charles Reade's A Good Fight" (afterwards rechristened "The Cloister and the Hearth") and to George Meredith's "Evan Harrington". There is a quality of conventionality in the earlier of these which completely disappears in the later.

(Location : Desk, Top shelf, far right)