This is a scarce little book.  Full of many of the standard fairy tales from various sources, 19th century and earlier, it also boasts a wonderful collection of overlooked illustrations by the likes of Richter and Pletsch.

Most books with Pletsch’s work are in German, and I have not seen another copy of this particular work.  He was fairly prolific in the late 1800’s.  Typically, books included four to ten full page color illustrations, with many smaller cuts distributed throughout the text.  This book is typical in this regard.

Ludwig Richter was another prolific German illustrator, with archetypal period illustrations appearing in many children’s books and fairy tales as well as other media.   He was influential in the use of woodcut illustrations at the time.  With this current book it is not always easy to tell who executed which illustration, nor the identities of the “other” referred to on the title page.

While I have not seen this book other than the copy I have in hand, it is referenced in various ads from scanned books from the same publisher at Google Books, such as HERE.

Title: Wonder-World:  A Collection Of Fairy Tales, Old and New
Author: Translated from the French, German and Danish
Artist: L. Richter, Oscar Pletsch, and Others
Publisher: George Bell and Sons
Date Published: 1875

In all there are about 60 images.  I have posted many representative pictures below.  All of them are available in the GALLERY.  These thumbnail illustrations link to the GALLERY, where each image may be downloaded in various sized, high resolution JPEG files.

Cover Detail

Cover Detail

Cinderella

Little Meta

Padmanaba and Hassan

The Sleeping Beauty

The Glass Mountain

The Wood-Maiden

Padmanaba and Hassan

Sunshine Stories

Hans in Luck

King Thrush-Beard

Little Meta

Little Snow-White

Little Thumb

Mother Holle