THE RHINEGOLD & THE VALKYRIE. de Wagner, Richard. Translated by Margaret Armour - 1920

London: William Heinemann, 1920. 160 pp, 10" H. Taupe-coloured cloth with black lettering/decoration on spine and front board, black publisher's emblem on rear board. Pictorial endpapers, b&w vignettes, 34 colour plates (including frontispiece), tipped in on heavy stock with borders, tissue covers bearing captions (all present). This book contains the first two parts of 'The Ring of the Niblung', i.e.: 'The Rhinegold: Prelude' and 'The Valkyrie: First Day of the Trilogy'. This English translation of Richard Wagner's epic opera is enhanced by Arthur Rackham's beautiful, detailed illustrations, which bring to life the gods, goddesses, giants, dwarves and other inhabitants of the drama. The plates are all clean and bright, although one has four tiny flecks of skim from the facing tissue at the top (probably as a result of the tipping-in process), one has a very small crease at the bottom left-hand corner and another has a very tiny piece of edge wear. The card stock has darkened, as seems common with this production, affecting the adjacent pages (see photograph). Some pages have light wrinkling (no creases) - mainly at corners. Moderate browning to edges of text block. Wrinkling at top/bottom of spine. Two margin tears (not affecting text or illustrations) have been repaired with archival tape. Dust jacket has very small chips at top/bottom of spine and flap-folds, browning and some very light scuffs on spine, some light browning on panels, three water stains on spine - the largest and darkest at the bottom, light edge wear/wrinkling, small light stain on rear panel.. New Impression.. Hard Cover. Good+/Good-. Illus. by Arthur Rackham..