8vo. (7 x 5 inches) full green marbled calf sides with two spaced gilt fillets forming the borders; spine with five raised bands with elaborate gilt decoration within four compartments, the other two with red morocco labels on which the title information has been stamped in gilt. Board edges gilt, inner gilt dentelles; a.e.g. Original decorated cloth cover and spine bound in at the back. Stamped name of the bookseller, Charles Sessler—Philadelphia, on the front end leaf. A FINE EXAMPLE of marbling calf with acid (it is usually done on natural calf), and is the first copy we have seen in color.FIRST EDITION. The work follows the highly successful Ballad of Beau Brocade in which Dobson and Thomson collaborated. Henry Austin Dobson (1840-1921) was an accomplished writer of light verse, with a wide knowledge of the 18th century, which can be attested to by his biographies of some of its literary super stars. Hugh Thomson (1860-1920) is said by Gordon Ray (The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to 1914) to have modeled his style of illustration after Randolph Caldecott's Old Christmas, "...but since Caldecott illustrated one other book in this manner and Thomson illustrated scores, the latter is properly regarded as the chef d'école." A nice example of the work of the two, in a very attractive and most unusual binding. See: Ray pp. 180-181.