Recent finds

One of the perks of looking after Johnny a couple of days a week is that we get to tour the secondhand bookshops of the High Peak.
From George St Books in Glossop, excellent condition, and a pound each!-


-I think maybe they'd just not been priced up yet and the chap on the till probably got in trouble for this giveaway.
and from Scriveners a few weeks ago - full of scribbles but complete -


-again just £1. Turns out I'd already got this one (note to self - take your list next time), but Davy Law's Dennis is such a pleasure and still so fresh and funny now.
The great thing about finding such bargains is that you become fully justified in spending a bit more on other treats -


I've done posts on these Pere Castor animal books before (this one from Oxfam Books on eBay for a fiver or so), so won't go on about how beautiful they are again - I'll just post one of the illustrations that makes me go ahhh -


And here's a beaut from George St Books. £7.50 first edition (1936) though some do-badder has sliced out the colour title plate.



The endpapers give an idea of the story and quality of illustrations-



A quick search for Kurt Weise reveals he illustrated absolutely loads of kids books from the 30's onwards, Ping the Duck and The Five Chinese Brothers being the two I recognise and still own.
I expect you Americans are much more familiar with his work and he's widely celebrated, but to me he feels like a real discovery and it makes me want to make it my mission to collect them all. I'm certainly going to seek out a copy with the title page still intact.
And I'm going to learn to draw like that too.