A classic set of Grimm Brothers tales: German Popular Stories, Translated from the Kinder un Haus Marchen, Collected by M. M. Grimm, From Oral Tradition, Vols. I and II, illustrated with 20 plates and engraved titles by George Cruikshank. London: J. Robins and Sherwood, Gilbert & Piper, 1834. Hardcovers bound in contemporary half-calf over marbled boards, 4.25 x 7, 240 and 256 pages. In good to very good condition, with foxing throughout, moderate edgewear and rubbing to boards, some offsetting to engravings, and paper loss to the corner of page 99 in Vol. I, slightly affecting the text.
In Elements of Drawing (1857), famed critic John Ruskin praised this set: 'If you ever happen to meet with the two volumes of Grimm's German Stories, which were illustrated by him [Cruikshank] long ago, pounce on them instantly; the etchings in them are the finest things next to Rembrandt's, that, as far as I know, have been done since etching was invented. You cannot look at them too much, nor copy them too often.'
