L'OEUVRE DE ARTHUR RACKHAM, SIGNED BY RACKHAM, WITH 44 FINE COLOR PLATES OF "PAINTINGS… REPRODUCED FOR THE FIRST TIME HERE"

(RACKHAM, Arthur) QUILLER-COUCH, Arthur. L'Oeuvre de Arthur Rackham. Paris: Hachette et Cie, [1913]. Quarto, original full gilt-stamped vellum, top edge gilt, uncut. Housed in a custom slipcase. $2900.

Signed limited edition, number 212 of only 460 copies signed by Rackham, with 44 beautiful mounted color plates.

As Rackham notes at the beginning of this work: "Some of the illustrations in this volume have already appeared in magazines or periodicals, usually in the form of simple sketches in white and black. Reworked, they have become the paintings that are reproduced for the first time here. All my thanks are due for this transformation to the owners of Ladies' Field and Pall Mall Magazine. I have also incurred a great debt of gratitude to the owners of some paintings for the kindness with which they put them at my disposal for reproduction (translated from the French)." The subjects in these beautiful plates include elves and goblins, dryads and dragons, menacing sea monsters, Mother Nature, Jack the Giant Killer, and Saint Nicholas. With an introduction by Arthur Quiller-Couch. Text in French. Plate I bound as frontispiece; all other plates bound at rear. This French edition not in Latimore & Haskell or Riall. A limited edition of 1030 copies, bound in white cloth was published in London in the same year under the title Arthur Rackham's Book of Pictures (Latimore & Haskell, 41. Riall, 118).

Plates and text fine and bright; original vellum with only very light soiling, without original ribbon ties. A lovely copy.