Gypsy Folk-Tales.
London: Hurst and Blackett Limited, 1899. First Edition. Hardcover. Large octavo. lxxxiv + 302pp. Original black cloth has been professionally re-backed with matching cloth, original boards and most of original spine have been retained. Appendix and index. Francis Hindes Groome (1851-1902), was a writer with a particular interest in the Romany people, their language, life, history, customs, beliefs, and lore. Groome was editor of the 'Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society' as well as author of the article on gypsies in the ninth edition of the 'Encyclopedia Britannica.' Over the years he contributed on a variety of subjects to such publications as the Dictionary of National Biography, Blackwood's Magazine, the Athenaeum, Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia, The Bookman, Chambers' Biographical Dictionary, the Ordinance Gazetteer of Scotland, and many others. Still, he is probably best known for this volume in which he adds an extensive introduction to the collection of over 75 folk-tales. The cloth of this volume is notoriously fragile, and the spines of most surviving copies have been restored. In this case it has been professionally rebacked, with about 85 % of the original spine laid down: a largish chip was missing from the original spine, which last lost about half of the title letters (see photograph). Cloth lightly rubbed overall, light bruising to spine ends and corners, page edges darkened, pages toned but fresh and unmarked. Internally tight and clean (issued without dust jacket). Item #64204
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