Lot #549

Hans Christian Andersen Signed Book - Eventyr og Historier [Fairy Tales and Stories]

Description

Rare signed 'New Collection' copy of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic 'Fairy Tales and Stories,' home to classics like 'The Little Mermaid,’ ‘The Ugly Duckling,’ and ‘The Snow Queen'

Signed book: Eventyr og Historier [Fairy Tales and Stories] by Hans Christian Andersen. Later printing, ‘Ny Samling’ [New Collection]. Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzel's Publishing House, 1872. Hardcover, handsomely rebound in 20th-century roan, with gilt titling and decorative devices to the boards and spine, with the publisher's original pictorial rear wrapper bound-in, 5.25 x 6.5, 73 pages. Signed and inscribed in Danish on the half-title page in ink, "Frøken Sophie Melchior, en hjertelig Hilsen i foraaret 1872, fra H. C. Andersen" ["Miss Sophie Melchior, a warm greeting in the spring of 1872, from H. C. Andersen"]. Autographic condition: fine, with light mottled foxing to the signed page. Book condition: VG/None, with sunning to the spine, light edgwear, and a bit of foxing to the textblock.

A marvelous signed copy of Andersen’s beloved collection of timeless fairy tales, which includes beloved stories like ‘The Little Mermaid,’ ‘The Ugly Duckling,’ and ‘The Snow Queen.’

Hans Christian Andersen's friendship with the Melchior family developed later in life, and his correspondence with various members of the family is among his weightiest in the last decade or so of his life. According to Niels Oxenvad, who wrote the introduction for ‘H.C. Andersen's correspondence with the Melchior family,’ the period between 1860 and 1875, only his letters to and from the Collin family reach a greater number than those sent to the Melchior family. His most frequent correspondent among the family was Dorothea Melchior, wife of Moritz Melchior. Andersen became one of the family's closest friends, dining at their home every Thursday. In the summers, Andersen would stay at the Melchiors' home, Rolinghed, where two rooms on the first floor were always at his disposal. Sophie Melchior was Moritz G. Melchior's niece, and she also stayed at Rolighed in Osterbro every summer, typically while Andersen was also a guest there. Oxenvad describes Sophie as a member of the Melchior team whom Andersen liked very much.

Auction Info

• Auction Title: Fine Autographs and Artifacts Featuring Science and Technology
• Dates: #737 - Ended 03/18/2026

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