Arthur Mee Heroes of the Flag c1935 Illustrated Dust Jacket Drake Cook
With Original Illustrated Dust Jacket
 
Title & Bibliographic Details
Title: Heroes of the Flag
Author: Arthur Mee
Series: From Arthur Mee’s Little Treasure Island
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., London
Printer: Wyman & Sons Ltd.
Date: Undated (circa 1935)
Binding: Original blue cloth with illustrated dust jacket
Illustrations: Blue-toned plates with tissue guards
This attractive illustrated historical volume forms part of Arthur Mee’s Uniform Edition of Gift Books, produced during the interwar years for younger readers and family libraries.
Although undated, the contemporary Christmas 1935 presentation inscription confirms an issue date no later than that year and is fully consistent with the known publication period of this edition.
 
Historical & Series Context
Arthur Mee’s Little Treasure Island series introduced younger readers to:
exploration 
empire history 
literary figures 
national identity narratives 
heroic biography 
Heroes of the Flag includes accounts of:
Sir Francis Drake 
Sir Walter Raleigh 
Walter Greenway 
Captain James Cook 
Robert Louis Stevenson 
wireless operators of the First World War (“The Men Who Saved the World”) 
and reflections on “The Spirit of the Flag” 
These volumes were widely given as School presentation prizes, Christmas gift books, Sunday-school awards, and parish library reading copies.
Examples retaining their original dust jackets and tissue-guarded plates are increasingly desirable today.
 
Illustrations
Complete with all blue-toned plates, each retaining its original tissue guard and caption leaf and the plates include:
Drake discovering the Pacific (frontispiece) 
Farewell to Sir Thomas Doughty 
Raleigh and the Lost Colony report 
Raleigh taken to the Tower 
Death of Captain Cook 
Walter Greenway on the Tigris 
Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa 
Wireless operators of the Great War 
Illustrated gift-book plates of this type were a defining feature of Hodder & Stoughton juvenile historical publishing during the 1930s.
 
Binding & Exterior Condition
Bound in original blue cloth boards with black lettering to spine, black decorative borders to front board, and clean and well-preserved cloth surfaces.
The original colour illustrated dust jacket survives.
Dust jacket condition:
small edge tears and light creasing 
minor surface marks 
clipped front inner flap 
otherwise, attractive 
Boards beneath:
minimal edge wear 
very light fading to edges and spine 
a couple of small edge impressions only 
A notably well-preserved jacketed example for the period.
 
Interior Condition
Interior remains in very good clean condition:
paper lightly toned as expected 
pages thick and crisp 
occasional light foxing only 
no creasing or tears 
illustrations clean and complete 
tissue guards intact throughout 
binding firm and secure 
 
Provenance
Ownership inscription:
E. Wyatt, With good wishes from Mr. & Mrs. Stewart, Christmas 1935
Bladon Choir
Bladon is the historic Oxfordshire village closely associated with the Churchill family and its long-established parish institutions. Presentation inscriptions of this kind reflect the book’s original role as a parish or community gift volume during the interwar period and add appealing historical context to its early readership.
 
Physical Details
Pagination: 160 pages - all present and complete
Illustrations: Complete set of blue-toned plates with tissue guards
Dimensions: 20.7 cm × 14.5 cm × 3.5 cm
Weight: approx. 460 g
 
Rarity & Collector Notes
This edition should be considered scarce in original dust jacket and is an especially appealing example of Arthur Mee’s interwar historical gift-book series.