[A Tatra Fairy Tale]. Ten postcards with illustrations by Walery Eliasz Radzikowski. Kraków, n.d.

[A Tatra Fairy Tale]. Ten postcards with illustrations by Walery Eljasz-Radzikowski. Kraków, n.d. “Polonia” Publishing House. Color prints, cards measuring 14 x 9 cm.

A series of ten color postcards (nos. 153–162), featuring works by Walery Eljasz-Radzikowski (1840–1905), a highly regarded Kraków painter and photographer, a great patriot, and a lover of the Tatra Mountains and Zakopane. Below each image is an extensive quotation from “The Tatra Fairy Tale,” signed “Maryla Westfalewiczówna.” “A Tatra Fairy Tale About the King of Snakes” was first transcribed in its entirety from folk legends in Szczawnica by Kazimierz Łapczyński and published with 10 illustrations by Eljasz-Radzikowski in 1905. “A Tale of the Szczawnica Highlanders” is the story of the brave son of the highlanders, Kasia and Janek, who fights the king of the mountains —a serpent who devours girls from the surrounding villages—as well as the sleeping knights in his service. At the spot where “his body lies buried, there is a lovely town—called Zakopane.” Pages uncirculated, clean. Minor edge damage and stains; otherwise in good condition.
Lit.: R. Kuty, The Tatra Mountains and Zakopane in the Illustrations of Walery Eljasz-Radzikowski, Kielce 2020, pp. 330–337, ill. 319–326 (1910 edition, from the collection of E. and A. Petrykowski)