Page 144 - Swann Galleries - 20th Century Illustration - Sale 2300 - January 24, 2013

CHARLOTTE’SWEB
278 ● GARTH WILLIAMS ; and ROSEMARY WELLS. Set of 48 proof plates.
Illustrations by Williams, watercolored by Wells for the 50th Anniversary Edition of
Charlotte’s Web, each Signed byWells and marked “color plate” in pencil, lower portion of
illustration or margins.Various sizes, the largest measuring roughly 204x153 mm; 8x6 inches,
image, on Winsor & Newton white paper, a few with pin holes at top corners, most with
faint pencil numbers in lower corners (which seem to indicate their order of appearance in
the book).Accompanied by a remainder First Edition copy of the book, called the Signature
Edition with an afterword by Peter F. Neumeyer. 8vo, cloth and boards, worn and scuffed.
Title page ink-Signed “color plates - Rosemary Wells” in her hand. New York: Harper
Collins, (2002). [25,000/35,000]
THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION COLOR PLATES ofWhite’s beloved children’s classic.The
publisher approached Wells to re-illustrate the work in color for this anniversary edition with
the belief that children’s books need to be in color to appeal to a modern audience. She convinced
them thatWilliams’s iconic images should not be changed, but rather she would agree to hand-
color them “applying a very simple palette befitting the story’s setting”—page 216.