Will O’ the Wisps. Observed, pictured and rhymed
VAN SANDWYK, Charles
Will O’ the Wisps. Observed, pictured and rhymed.
Vancouver: The Fairy Press, [2024]
Small 8vo., orange sewn card covers with onlaid image showing bumble-bee figure in a tall hat carrying a lantern; decorative border in brown and gold with twigs and mushrooms; marble-effect tissue endpapers; [unpaginated], calligraphic text printed throughout, numerous full-colour illustrations including one double page; folding panoramic plate showing a series of Will O’ the Wisp characters; and another, housed in a marbled paper envelope decorated with the moon and stars; fine.
New edition of a work first published in 2012 in a limited edition of just 35 copies. This version with orange card covers, and together with two hand drawn and coloured illustrations to p. [i-ii], the first a shooting star with the author’s initials dated 2024; and the other to verso, showing a fairy creature, signed by van Sandwyk in black ink. Both images tipped in gold.
In traditional folklore, a Will O’ the Wisp is a fairy, ghost or spirit who appears at night carrying a light, and most often spotted over bogs or marshlands. Also known as Jack-O’-Lanterns, van Sandwyk here collects together several examples of these creatures, and pictures many of them holding lanterns aloft or carrying branches with stars, some with tall hats, others with grassy hair, and more still with colourful butterfly wings. With the intention of restoring kinship between us, the ‘Big Folk’ and them, the ‘Wee Folk’, the author shows, with grace and charm, “Those Will o’the Wisps I have met, in the dark of weary night” who “have led me safely home to bed with softly shimmering light.”
VAN SANDWYK, Charles
Will O’ the Wisps. Observed, pictured and rhymed.
Vancouver: The Fairy Press, [2024]
Small 8vo., orange sewn card covers with onlaid image showing bumble-bee figure in a tall hat carrying a lantern; decorative border in brown and gold with twigs and mushrooms; marble-effect tissue endpapers; [unpaginated], calligraphic text printed throughout, numerous full-colour illustrations including one double page; folding panoramic plate showing a series of Will O’ the Wisp characters; and another, housed in a marbled paper envelope decorated with the moon and stars; fine.
New edition of a work first published in 2012 in a limited edition of just 35 copies. This version with orange card covers, and together with two hand drawn and coloured illustrations to p. [i-ii], the first a shooting star with the author’s initials dated 2024; and the other to verso, showing a fairy creature, signed by van Sandwyk in black ink. Both images tipped in gold.
In traditional folklore, a Will O’ the Wisp is a fairy, ghost or spirit who appears at night carrying a light, and most often spotted over bogs or marshlands. Also known as Jack-O’-Lanterns, van Sandwyk here collects together several examples of these creatures, and pictures many of them holding lanterns aloft or carrying branches with stars, some with tall hats, others with grassy hair, and more still with colourful butterfly wings. With the intention of restoring kinship between us, the ‘Big Folk’ and them, the ‘Wee Folk’, the author shows, with grace and charm, “Those Will o’the Wisps I have met, in the dark of weary night” who “have led me safely home to bed with softly shimmering light.”
VAN SANDWYK, Charles
Will O’ the Wisps. Observed, pictured and rhymed.
Vancouver: The Fairy Press, [2024]
Small 8vo., orange sewn card covers with onlaid image showing bumble-bee figure in a tall hat carrying a lantern; decorative border in brown and gold with twigs and mushrooms; marble-effect tissue endpapers; [unpaginated], calligraphic text printed throughout, numerous full-colour illustrations including one double page; folding panoramic plate showing a series of Will O’ the Wisp characters; and another, housed in a marbled paper envelope decorated with the moon and stars; fine.
New edition of a work first published in 2012 in a limited edition of just 35 copies. This version with orange card covers, and together with two hand drawn and coloured illustrations to p. [i-ii], the first a shooting star with the author’s initials dated 2024; and the other to verso, showing a fairy creature, signed by van Sandwyk in black ink. Both images tipped in gold.
In traditional folklore, a Will O’ the Wisp is a fairy, ghost or spirit who appears at night carrying a light, and most often spotted over bogs or marshlands. Also known as Jack-O’-Lanterns, van Sandwyk here collects together several examples of these creatures, and pictures many of them holding lanterns aloft or carrying branches with stars, some with tall hats, others with grassy hair, and more still with colourful butterfly wings. With the intention of restoring kinship between us, the ‘Big Folk’ and them, the ‘Wee Folk’, the author shows, with grace and charm, “Those Will o’the Wisps I have met, in the dark of weary night” who “have led me safely home to bed with softly shimmering light.”