MILNE, A[lan] A[lexander]. Now We Are Six. Decorations by Ernest H. Shepard. London: Methuen and Co [1927]. 8vo, xii 104pp. Red leather pictorially stamped in gilt; a.e.g. Pictorial endpapers; b&w illustrations throughout. A fine copy in original glassine wrapper (with expected wear to the glassine) and housed in a handsome facsimile of the original gift box.

 

First edition, deluxe leatherbound issue. Milne’s second volume of children’s poems and the third book to feature his beloved Winnie-the-Pooh. With the enormous success of Milne and Shepard’s first two books featuring the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Woods, Methuen began issuing deluxe editions of the books bound in a sumptuous leather and with gilt edges. When this third volume came out, it was issued simultaneously in a trade edition and a more expensive deluxe edition that was issued in a box and with glassine wrappers. Copies of this gorgeous binding are uncommon in this beautiful condition, and ones that retain the glassine wrappers are exceedingly rare!