?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
WITH THREE ORIGINAL TRIAL COVER IMAGES (CHILDREN'S LITERATURE.) Ward, Lynd. The Biggest Bear. Illustrated by Ward. Thin 4to, tan cloth pictorially stamped in red; dust jacket, scattered edgewear and a few tears and creases, Caldecott medal mounted to lower right front panel; pocket mounted to pastedown with three preliminary cover drawings by ward. Boston, (1952)
first edition of ward''s caldecott-winning children''s book. signed, and with three preliminary designs for the cover, in ink, watercolor, and wash. The largest, in grey, black, and white, on board, measures 260x160 mm; another, slightly smaller, measures 200x140 with red ink added; and a considerably smaller third image in a similar design as the second image, measuring 97x75 mm. Ward was a perfectionist and worked meticulously on each drawing. He discarded the first several drawings he made for The Biggest Bear because he was unhappy with them and started over. Ward finished the work first as a sequence of pictures then added a "minimum of words to hold it together"- Anne Commire, editor. "Lynd Ward," in Something About the Author, Detroit: Gale Research Company, pp 197-209. The book won the 1953 Caldecott Award for the most distinguished American picture book for children. McNeer, May, "Lynd Ward" in Caldecott Medal Books, 1938-1957.
