Posted by Jon on February 22, 2000 at 14:24:50 from 199.158.80.12:
In Reply to: Map quality in various editions + a bouquet posted by Rebecca on February 19, 2000 at 05:20:37:
Many of the illustrations have been redone over time, whether due to worn-out plates, lost plates, or (possibly?) variations in the size of the books. One classic example is in SW, the picture captioned "On The Way To The Islands", which in earliest editions showed Wizard's painter trailing off the stern of Goblin. This had disappeared by, IIRC, 1947. Also in the earliest editions of SW there was an (untitled) drawing of the Eel totem and Swallows and Amazons flags flying from Goblin's mast and crosstrees. By sometime in the 90s this had been dropped from the book, although I believe it's still on the JC covers.
I was disappointed enough in the map in more recent editions of SA (a composite after AR) that I went after a '50s edition with the original map. As for which editions you should get in order to get best quality illustrations, it will vary. I'd say a pre-1947 SW. The first editions of the first 2 or 3 books didn't feature Ransome's illustrations, so that may provide a cutoff at the other end. Probably concentrating on editions published prior to the initial release of GN would give the optimum mix of Ransome graphics and print quality. You may just have to steel yourself to (horrifying thought) examine a number of different editions to find the most desirable from your viewpoint.