The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book; A Book of Old Favourites with New Illustrations

London: George C. Harrap & Co. Ltd, 1933. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/good +. Rackham, Arthur. First trade edition, octavo size, 287 pp. The work of Arthur Rackham (1867-1939), an eminent illustrator of many books which often depict fantasy and fairy tale subjects, is still loved and collected today. Rackham contributed illustrations to many popular stories, such as "Cinderella", "Sleeping Beauty", "Alice in Wonderland", and the Brothers Grimm fairy tales; in the Preface to this work, Rackham wrote: "[f]or this book I have gone to those old favourites of the nursery that have such a hold on our affections that their incidents, characters, and even phrases have become part of our everyday thought and expression" (p. 7).

Included in this volume are: "Hop-O'-My Thumb" (Perrault), "Dick Whittington" (Traditional English), "Jack and the Beanstalk" (ibid), "Beauty and the Beast" (Madame de Villeneuve), "Henny-Penny" (Traditional English), "The Story of Sindbad the Sailor" (The Arabian Nights), "Jack the Giant-Killer" (Traditional English), "The Ugly Duckling" (Hans Andersen), "The Princess and the Pea" (ibid), "Blue Beard" (Perrault), "The Story of Aladdin..." (The Arabian Nights), "The Sleeping Beauty" (Perrault), "The Barmecide's Feast" (The Arabian Nights), "Toads and Diamonds" (Perrault), "The Three Bears" (Southey), "Ali Baba" (The Arabian Nights), "Cinderella" (Perrault), "Puss in Boots" (ibid), "The Emperor's New Clothes" (Hans Andersen), "Rip Van Winkle (Washington Irving), "Little Red Riding-Hood" (Perrault), "Hansel and Grethel" (Grimm), and "What the Old Man Does Is Always Right" (Hans Andersen).

___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full rust-coloured cloth over boards, black lettering and decorations on the front and spine, light brown debossed decorations on front and spine, illustrated endpapers in sepia, coloured frontis ("New Lamps for Old") one of eight full-colour illustrations throughout, sixty black-and-white illustrations throughout, many full-page, some in-text, some chapter tailpieces; octavo size (8 15/16" by 6 1/4"), pagination: [1-6] 7-287. In the publisher's dust jacket with the correct price of "8/6 Net" on the lower front flap, one of the eight colour illustrations reproduced on the front panel (Hop-o'-my thumb...), surrounded by a border with brown lettering with "two small sketches in colour at the top...These small sketches appear only on the dust wrapper" (per Latimore & Haskell, p. 88), black lettering and decorations on the spine, black pattern surrounded by a black border on the back panel, publisher's ads for other Arthur Rackham books on the front flap with the price at the bottom, back flap blank.

___CONDITION: Near fine and could almost be deemed fine, with clean boards utterly without wear, the stamped colours deep and unrubbed, straight corners without rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and bright, and entirely free of prior owner markings; a hint of sunning to the top and bottom edges, some toning to the endpapers, else fine. The dust jacket a bit better than good, unclipped, with all component parts present and attached; overall edgewear especially on the front panel including several closed tears and some creasing along the edges. A lovely example of the book in a good dust jacket, of which there are only a handful available.

___CITATION: Latimore & Haskell, p. 69; Riall p. 182.

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