Sleeping Beauty, 1949, series 413 (no DJ)

Sleeping Beauty, 1949, series 413 was the 5th book to be published in series 413 – the second series of Ladybird books ever produced.  The 413 series is quite a  random mixture of tales and rhymes – but all for pre-school children.  This book proved to be a forerunner for one of Ladybird’s most successful series ever – the 606d fairy tales.  However the illustrations here have a very different style.  They are beautiful and very much of-their-time – more stylised than the 1960s books.  As with many of the books of the series, this one states that it was “told by Muriel Levy”.  This was a celebrity tie-in of its day – Auntie Muriel was a well known radio personality from Children’s Hour.

The illustrations are by Evelyn Bowmar – about whom I know almost nothing except that she did not enjoyher  dealings with Wills & Hepworth over the course of the three books that she illustrated for the company.  (This was the 1940s and Wills & Hepworth was a long way from being known as a publishing company then).

Anyway, before you buy this book as a gift for someone, check whether the recipient wants this version or the version later published in series 606d.

This copy is a later edition.  It’s missing its original dustwrapper but is generally in good shape.  It’s a little worn, with well-turned pages, but the pages are generally clean and the binding is sound. There’s a neat name and a couple of minor blemishes on the (rather beautiful) endpapers.