Seven Original Arthur Rackham Watercolors

by Stephen J. Gertz

[RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator]. BROWNING, Robert.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: George G. Harrap & Co., Ltd. [1934].
One of ten specially bound copies containing an original watercolor,
this copy being No. 4.

Between 1931 and 1936, famed book illustrator Arthur Rackham, as gifts to his close friends, specially ordered  nine to eleven copies of the following nine books he illustrated.

[RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator]. ROSSETTI, Christina.
Goblin Market. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: George G. Harrap & Co., Ltd. [1933].
One of ten specially bound copies containing an original watercolor,
this copy being No. 7.

1931: The Night Before Christmas
1931: The Compleat Angler
1932: Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen
1932: The King of the Golden River
1933: The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book
1933: Goblin Market
1934: The Pied Piper of Hamelin
1935: Poe’s Tales of Mystery & Imagination
1936: Peer Gynt

[RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator].
The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book.
A book of old favourites with new illustrations.
London: George G. Harrap & Co., Ltd. [1933].
One of ten special copies containing an original watercolor,
this copy being No. 8.

Rackham had them specially bound by renowned binders Sangorski & Sutcliffe and included an unique original watercolor in each.

[RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator]. RUSKIN, John.
The King of the Golden River. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: George G. Harrap & Co., Ltd. [1932].
One of nine specially bound copies with an original watercolor,
this being copy No. 6.  

The limitation leaves were printed on the verso of the half-titles and contain a statement written in ink by the publisher, George H. Harrap: "This edition, which contains an original painting by Arthur Rackham, is limited to nine [or ten] copies of which eight are for sale. George G. Harrap & Co Ltd."

[RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator]. POE, Edgar Allan.
Tales of Mystery & Imagination. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: George G. Harrap & Co., [1935].
One of ten special copies containing an original watercolor,
this copy being No. 5.

Including original art  in some copies of books he illustrated was not unusual for Rackham.

RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator]. IBSEN, Henrik.
Peer Gynt. A Dramatic Poem by Henrik Ibsen.
Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: George G. Harrap & Co., [1936].
One of ten special copies containing an original watercolor,
this copy being No. 7.

Original art, albeit simple pen & ink drawings, can be found, for instance, in trade edition copies of the Heinemann productions of Wagner, The Reingold & The Valkyrie (1910) and Siegfreid & The Twilight of the Gods (1911); and Hodder & Stoughton's signed and limited  edition of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906).

[RACKHAM, Arthur]. RHODES,Thomas.
To The Other Side. With Illustrations by Arthur Rackham & Alfred Bryan.
London: George Philip & Son, 1893.
Rackham's copy, and with an original watercolor by
Rackham with a lengthy inscription by Rackham,
signed and dated 1935.

Rackham's personal copy of Rhodes' To The Other Side (1893) - the first book he illustrated - is graced by a delicate watercolor. Rackham, per usual with his anthropomorphic trees, used his face as model. 

Special copies uniformly bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.

Because of their rarity and popularity with collectors, copies of Rackham-illustrated books with original art by him are not inexpensive, generally running into low five figures. For the Rackham aficionado they're worth every penny.

__________

Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.
__________
__________

Satyr Reads Book To Wood Nymph While Trees Observe

By Stephen J. Gertz

Somebody's Book by Arthur Rackham.

Appearing on page 92 of The Windmill, an anthology of authors and illustrators published by William Heinemann Ltd., Somebody's Book by Arthur Rackham, makes its debut; it is found nowhere else.

The authors represented in The Windmill include John Galsworthy, Edmund Gosse, Siegfried Sassoon, John Masefield, Maurice Baring, Max Beerbohm, Algernon Swinburne, Lafcadio Hearn, Vita Sackville-West, Israel Zangwill, Stephen Crane, Arthur Symons, Christopher Morley, W. Somerset Maugham, Jack London and others.

Many of the pieces in the book appear here for the first time. Profits from its sale were donated to the Royal Literary Fund. Also present are facsimiles of manuscripts or letters by R. S. Stevenson, W. H. Page, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, A. C. Swinburne, Rutland Boughton and Laurence Sterne.

Booktryst readers are invited to imagine what book the satyr is reading to his darlin' dryad. You may leave your answers below in the Comments section. I don't think it's The Vicar of Wakefield.

__________

[RACKHAM, Arthur, Cecil Alden, Hugh Thompson, illustrators]. CALLENDER, L. (editor). The Windmill: Stories, Essays, Poems & Pictures by Authors and Artists whose Works are pubiished at the Sign of the Windmill. London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1923. First edition, lim ited to 500 copies. Quarto. ix, [1], 224 pp. Four color plates with captioned tissue guards, four black and white plates (one double-page), seven facsimile reproductions. 

Publisher's original quarter black cloth over orange papered boards. Gilt lettered spine, publisher's windmill vignette in gilt to upper cover. Issued with printed dust jacket.

Latimore and Haskell, p. 57.

__________
__________

The Beautiful Inlaid Pictorial Bindings of Chris Lewis

by Stephen J. Gertz

Chris Lewis was one of Bayntun-Riviere's most talented 'finishers" - the craftsperson who, after the book has been bound, executes the design. He designed and finished many unique inlaid bindings during his time at Bayntun-Riviere in the 1960s, established his own bindery in the 1970s, and returned to Bayntun prior to his death in the late eighties.

Here's a selection from a trove I recently had pass through my hands. Of particular note are the bindings he designed and bound in his own bindery, 1970 - early 1980s; it was then that he began to fully implement hand-painted highlights, a technique he began to experiment with while still at Baynton-Riviere (see Mr. Pickwick, below, with painted facial highlights), and which reached its apotheosis with his binding for the Rackham-illustrated edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

[POGANY, Willy (Illustrator). GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von.
HAYWARD, Abraham (Translator). Faust. Translated by
Abraham Hayward. With Illustrations by Willy Pogany.
London: Hutchinson & Co., 1908.

Bound c. 1960 by Bayntun-Riviere,
designed and finished by Chris Lewis.

Detail.

Full crimson crushed morocco pictorially inlaid with orange, deep red, pale blue, sea green, deer brown, dark blue, white, dark brown, and beige morocco against a black-incised drawing that partially reproduces the illustration opposite p. 98, "Faust and Margaret in the Summer House,"  within a gilt-tooled border and outer frame of interlacing gilt strap-work. Gilt rolled edges. Raised bands with gilt ornaments, and compartments with gilt-ruled frames highlight the spine. Broad turn-ins decorated with gilt rules and floral corner devices. Pale pink end-leaves. All edges gilt.

REYNOLDS, Frank (Illustrator)]. DICKENS, Charles.
Mr. Pickwick. London: Hodder & Stoughton, n.d. [1910].

Bound c. 1960 by Bayntun-Riviere,
designed and finished by Chris Lewis.

Detail.

Full crimson crushed morocco with  charming pictorial, green, beige, brown, yellow, and flesh colored onlays  reproducing Frank Reynold's frontispiece of Mr. Pickwick within a central, sunken panel surrounded by four gilt-ruled borders enclosing prominent gilt corner-pieces of Tudor roses, leaves and swirls, gilt roses at each side. The lower cover reiterates the upper's gilt-work without the pictorial central panel. Wide turn-ins with large gilt corner-pieces and ruled borders. Raised bands with gilt ornaments, gilt framed and decorated or lettered compartments. Pales straw moire silk end-leaves. All edges gilt.

ROBINSON, W. Heath. Bill the Minder.
London: Constable, 1912.

Bound c. 1982, by Bayntun-Riviere,
designed and finished by Chris Lewis.

Detail.

Full red crushed morocco with multi-colored pictorial inlays and black-stamped flowers that reproduce the color plate, "The King of Troy Compelled to Ask His Way," opposite p. 30, within a blind-tooled frame surrounded by gilt double-ruled borders. Raised bands with gilt tools and compartments with gilt ornaments within a gilt double-ruled frame highlight the spine. Gilt rolled edgework. Gilt decorated turn-ins. All edges gilt. Cockerell endleaves.

[RACKHAM, Arthur]. CARROLL, Lewis.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
London: William Heinemann, [1907].

Bound ca. 1980 by Chris Lewis of Bath.

Detail.
Note painted highlights.

Full emerald morocco with double gilt fillets and a gilt-tooled central panel enclosing a multicolored pictorial inlay with original hand-coloring, reproducing A Mad Tea Party opposite p. 84. Gilt ornamented raised bands, gilt decorated compartments with ruled borders and central panel. Gilt rolled edges. Gilt tooled turn-ins.

RACKHAM, Arthur. The Romance of King Arthur
and His Knights of the Round Table. Abridged from
Malory's Morte D'Arthur by Alfred W. Pollard.
Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1917.

Bound by Chris Lewis (stamp-signed), c. early 1970s.

Detail.
Note painted highlights.

Full crimson morocco. Triple gilt-ruled borders. Central pictorial inlay of Sir Launcelot slaying the dragon, with multi-colored morocco inlays and painted highlights. Gilt ornamented and decorated compartments. Gilt rolled edges. Gilt dentelles. Top edge gilt, others rough.

[RACKHAM, Arthur, artist]. SWINBURNE, Algernon Charles.
The Springtide of Life. Poems of Childhood by Algernon
Charles Swinburne. With a Preface by Edmund Gosse.
Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London" William Heinemann, (1918).

Bound c. early 1970s by Chris Lewis.

Detail.
Note painted highlights.

Full emerald morocco. Gilt-ruled border. Gilt frame enclosing a pictorial onlay of multi-colored morocco with painted highlights that reproduces the frontispiece. Gilt decorated compartments. Gilt rolled edges. Gilt rolled turn-ins. Top edge gilt.

Pictorially inlaid bindings were once quite popular. Chris Lewis caught the last wave, or, rather,  swam against the current. They fell out of fashion with the development of modernism and the integration of abstraction into binding designs by the mid-20th century. As a result, the art and craft is getting lost as the demand has ebbed and the skills declined. Chris Lewis was the last binder to specialize in the genre, and with few to carry on the tradition and pass the knowledge to another generation, the art of pictorially inlaid bindings may fade into binding history.

That would be unfortunate. While pictorially inlaid bindings belong to another era and are, for some, a bit too representational with a precious, diabetic quality that may cloy, they possess a traditional charm and craftsmanship that for many overrides modern taste: not too sweet at all, they're "just right."

Ultimately, master craftsmanship never goes out of style.

__________

Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.
__________
__________

When Irish Elves Are Smiling

by Stephen J. Gertz

They offered a cow for each leg of her cow, but she would not accept that offer.

 When Irish elves are smiling
‘Tis an Arthur Rackham Spring
With the lilt of Irish fairies
You can hear the goblins Sing

The waves of all the worlds seemed to whirl
past them in one huge green cataract.

"Arthur Rackham's two great books of the 'Twenties were James Stephens' Irish Fairy Tales of 1920 and Shakespeare's Tempest of 1926...Beyond the softness of style and inventiveness, the most striking thing about the colour plates for Irish Fairy Tales is the felicitous and appropriate use of Celtic borders" (Gettings, Arthur Rackham, p. 143).

They stood outside, filled with savagery and terror.

The reviews for both author and artist were uniformly glowing, i.e.:

"Children may enjoy it, but like Arthur Rackham's exquisite illustrations, it will be fully appreciated only by more sophisticated readers" (The Review, Vol. 3, 1920).

"James Stephens' writing has the gift of everlasting youth. Arthur Rackham's drawing have inherent magic. Wherefore the two are fortunately met in a new book, primarily for children, but also full of appeal to grown-ups with a sense of humor" (The Independent, December 25, 1920).

She looked with angry woe at the straining and snarling horde below.

Dublin-born poet and novelist James Stephens (1882-1950) was a member of the Irish Literary Revival and co-founder of the Irish Review best known for The Crock of Gold (1912). He campaigned for a free Irish state. He wrote many retellings of Irish myths and fairy tales, The Crock of Gold amongst them. His interpretations are noteworthy for their humor and lyricism.

My life became a ceaseless scurry and wound and
escape, a burden and anguish of watchfulness.

Irish Fairy Tales is a retelling of ten Irish folktales set in a wooded, Medieval Ireland filled with larger-than-life hunters, warriors, kings, and fairies. Many stories concern the Fianna and their captain, Fionn mac Uail, from the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology.

This copy is in a contemporary binding in full forest green crushed morocco (possibly by Stikeman & Co.) with triple fillets and tooled borders surrounding an inner panel with corner and side devices, broad gilt dentelles, and top edge gilt.

__________

[RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator]. STEPHENS, James. Irish Fairy Tales. London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd, 1920. First trade edition. Quarto (8 1/4 x 6 3/8 in; 210 x 160 mm). x, 318 pp. Sixteen full color plates with captioned tissue guards, twenty-one drawings in black and white.

Lattimore and Haskell, p. 52. Riall, p. 138.
__________

Read the full text of James Stephens Irish Fairy Tales here.
__________

Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, currently offering this title, with our thanks.
__________

Stephen J. Gertz is a contributor to The Journal of the Arthur Rackham Society.
__________

Of related interest:

Arthur Rackham Drawing Found in Unrecorded Louis Wain Book.

The Riddle of Arthur Rackham's "Faithful Friends" Solved?

Peter Pan: Still a Boy at 150.
__________
__________

Unrecorded Arthur Rackham Drawing Found in Unrecorded Louis Wain Edition

by Stephen J. Gertz

Anytime an unrecorded book illustration by Arthur Rackham comes to light, it's news. 

Buried within Cats At Play, a book illustrated by, amongst others, cat artist, Louis Wain, is an unheralded black and white text illustration, on page forty, of four chickens in various states of distress as they observe, in high dudgeon and with no little annoyance, a cat within their food bucket chowing down the chicken feed. This is commonly known as kitty chutzpah. And at the lower left of the bucket, as small as can be, are Rackham's initials as typically drawn. 

Latimore and Haskell, and Riall make no mention of this illustration in their Rackham bibliographies, and it was unknown to the Arthur Rackham Society when we inquired.

This edition (the copy I handled with a school prize label dated December 22, 1904), is, in the absence of contradictory evidence, the true first and unrecorded, with no copies in institutional holdings worldwide. It is not noted in Rodney Dale’s Louis Wain: The Man Who Drew Cats, nor in Ellery Wood’s bibliography within Dale. As noted above, it was certainly unknown to  Latimore & Haskell, and Riall. 

Note Rackham's "AR" at base of bucket, left.

At the time of this book's approximate publication, Rackham had already had work published, mostly under his name with credit on the title page, providing single or multiple illustrations for, amongst others, To the Other Side (1893); Isis Very Much Unveiled (1894); The Dolly Dialogues (1894); The Zankiwank (1896); The Money Spinner (1896); Two Old Ladies... (1897); Captain Castle (1897); Through a Glass Lightly (1897); Charles O'Malley (1897); The Castle Inn (1898); Evelina (1898); The Ingoldsby Legends (1898); Gulliver's Travels (1900); Faithful Friends (1901); More Tales From the Stumps (1902); The Grey House on the Hill (1903); The Greek Heroes (1903); Red Pottage (1904); and The Peradventures of Private Pagett (1904). 

That Rackham would accept a commission to provide a single text line drawing to this book with no more credit than his microscopic initials should not come as a surprise. Rackham was hustling for work wherever he could find it; good reviews and regular exposure were not enough to keep him fully employed with money in his pocket. And none of the other illustrators for the book received credit beyond their initials or full signatures to their contributions.

And so we have a previously unknown Rackham during his transitional period, when his fairies and goblins were emerging but had not yet fully vanquished the simple, pay-the-bills work of his early years.

This book was later issued by Blackie & Son, 1917, and Alexandria Publications, c. 1920, in what appear to be abridged editions; the Blackie & Son edition collates to only twelve pages. It is unknown to me whether these later editions contain the Rackham drawing.

__________

WAIN, Louis. RACKHAM, Arthur. SMITH, H. Officer. GLADWIN, May, et al. Cats At Play. London: John F. Shaw, n.d. [c. 1900-1904].

First edition, unrecorded and scarce,. Small quarto (9 5/8 x 7 1/8 in;  245 x 180 mm). Illustrated throughout in black and white and color, with fifteen drawings by Louis Wain, and an unrecorded text drawing by Arthur Rackham (so initialed) on page 40.

Publisher's pictorial boards. Beveled edges. School prize label to front paste down endpaper dated Dec. 22, 1904. 160 pp with  advertising as endpapers.

Cf. Wood 34 and 35, as recorded in Dale, Louis Wain: The Man Who Drew Cats, p. 137.

__________

Of related interest:

Two Very Rare Books For Cat Lover's Only (A Naughty Story).

The Riddle of Arthur Rackham's "Faithful Friends" Solved?

__________

Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks. The book sold instantly.
__________
__________

Gone Fishing

by Stephen J. Gertz

The author on vacation, 2010.

I'll be off on a brief vacation this week, just like last year, wearin' breeches, waistcoat, full-brimmed hat, and takin' my rod n' reel, and a good book to the ol' fishin' hole.

I'll read the book then use it as bait to lure the four-eyed set with fins lookin' for somethin' to peruse.

See you next week.

__________

Header image by Arthur Rackham for The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton, London: George G. Harrap, 1931. Courtesy of David Brass Rare Books.

Reading Fish image courtesy of CafePress.

__________

__________

The Riddle of Arthur Rackham's "Faithful Friends" Solved?

The Deluxe Two-Shilling true first edition of 1901 with all edges gilt.

Every now and then a book lands on my desk that none of the usual sources agree upon, a volume that is a bibliographical nightmare with few copies in institutional holdings, each, apparently, a different edition but all of them issued without a date of publication, and with few details in the records to help sort things out.

Such a book is Faithful Friends, a children's book illustrated by, amongst others, Arthur Rackham.


Latimore & Haskell and Derek Hudson declare 1913 as the year of this book's first publication, yet the plates by Rackham are dated "1901." COPAC notes a copy and assigns "1902" as publication date but without accompanying notes. OCLC notes a copy, "Printed by Blackie and Son Limited at the Villafield Press, Glasgow"-Cover./ Publisher's advertisement on p. [iv] of cover, for Hassall Nursery Series./ Binding: Pictorial boards with red cloth spine. Color illustration on cover of horse and dog," and assigns the date as 1913. Riall notes that edition but dates it 1904. I have have seen another, similar undated edition in green cloth with a color illustration of dog and horse on laid to green cloth. And yet another edition, with pictorial boards similar to the copy under notice, in green cloth. Again, all undated.


Bless or curse Google but a Net search - unavailable to Rackham's bibliographers - has, apparently, provided an answer.

Confusion may be (somewhat) cleared up by noting that the October 11, 1901 issue of The Bookseller, in its announcements of upcoming books, lists "Faithful Friends: My Book of Nursery Stories" within "Children's Books & c. By Messrs. Blackie and Son." In the same issue of The Bookseller, advertisements by Blackie tout "Faithful Friends: My Book of Nursery Stories" available in a Two-Shilling Toy-Books edition bound in "picture boards with edges gilt " and as a One-Shilling Toy-Book ("These form a Cheaper Edition of the Toy-Books of the same title in the 2s series"). We have yet to find evidence of the book, with that subtitle, ever being published.

Indeed, Latimore & Haskell (and Hudson) list the book under the title Faithful Friends, A Collection of Short Stories by Various Authors with the caveat: "Note: As the compilers could not see a copy of this book, the information was taken from the publishers." Their record for this book, then, is unreliable, and is referring to a later edition (1913).

Rackham's plates are dated 1901. It seems highly unlikely that the book 's publication would be postponed for eleven years. Based upon the advertisements in The Bookseller, I feel confident that the book was, indeed, issued in 1901 (Riall dates it to 1902 but, presumably, did not have these advertisements to reference) with the present subtitle a last-minute substitution, and that this copy is amongst the very scarce few copies of Faithful Friends in the Two-Shilling Toy-Books edition with all edges gilt to have survived the last 107 years.

Rackham specialist, David Brass, declares that, in over forty years of handling the works of Arthur Rackham, this is the only copy of what is clearly the true first, "Two Shilling," edition, that he's ever seen or heard of. Moreover, as the Two-Shilling Toy-Book (deluxe) edition with all edges gilt, it is the most desirable to collect.

The illustrations by Arthur Rackham in Faithful Friends are not his finest; they are simple, two-color drawings yet provide an excellent example of the artist in development. The illustrations are (by leaf signature):

1. L11 "Playful Puppies"
2. L22 "Waiting for the Train"
3. N4 "Break-Fast Time"
4. [N22] "In the Farmyard"
5. M9 "Pussycat Town" (black and white)
6. M11 "Pussy's Playtime"
7. M15 [The Bold Kitten] (black & white vignette).
8. M28 "My Pets"

I cordially invite anyone who can provide further information that can be substantiated about this book to contact me here at Book Patrol.
_________

[RACKHAM, Arthur and Cecil Aldin, etc., illustrators] Various Authors. Faithful Friends; Pictures and Stories for Little Folk. London: Blackie and Son, n..d., [1901].

First edition, deluxe "Two-Shilling" binding. Quarto. (10 1/8 x 7 3/4 in; 258 x 200 mm) 86 pp. With six full page two-color, and two black and white, illustrations by Rackham; miscellaneous color illustrations by Cecil Aldin, Felix Leigh, A.M. Hutton, Louis Wain, Gunning King, EAC [Edward Caldwell], Fannie Moody, M.E.E [Mary Ellen Edwards], M. Dixon, and others. Text by various authors.

Blue cloth, pictorially stamped in yellow, orange and pale gray depicting a little girl bearing a makeshift flag, walking with a dog and cat. All edges gilt.

References: Latimore and Haskell p. 41. (citing 1913 edition - not seen). Hudson p. 176. (citing 1913 edition). Gettings p.178. (citing 1913 edition). Hamilton p. 189. (citing 1913 edition). Riall p. 63. (citing 1902 edition as being the first printing).
____________

Images courtesy of David Brass.

Visit The Arthur Rackham Society.

N.B.: As of this writing the book has sold.