The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book, 1933, First Edition, Full Leather Custom Binding

Full Title:  The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book: A Book of Old Favourites with New Illustrations

Binding Details:  Fine contemporary full morocco leather binding with raised bands to the spine with gold gilt ruling, titles, and decorative central motifs. There is gold gilt ruling to the borders of the front and rear covers, the original pictorial  endpapers, hand-sewn silk endbands, and all the page edges are gold gilted.

Book Details:  This is the first edition, first printing of “The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book: A Book of Old Favourites with New Illustrations” published George G. Harrap & Co., London in 1933. The book features 8 full-page color and numerous black-and-white in-text illustrations by Arthur Rackham. From the publisher, “The contains a truly wonderful collection of classic children’s stories. They include: Charles Perrault’s ‘Hop O’ My Thumb’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Bluebeard’, traditional English tales such as ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and ‘Dick Whittington’, as well as tales from Arabian nights such as ‘Ali Baba’, ‘Aladdin’ and ‘Sinbad the Sailor’. True masterpieces of the genre such as Hans Christian Anderson’s ‘The Emperors New Clothes’, ‘The Ugly Duckling’ and ‘The Princess and the Pea’ are also encompassed. ‘The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book’ is accompanied throughout by a series of dazzling colour and black and white illustrations – by a master of the craft; Arthur Rackham. One of the most celebrated painters of the British Golden Age of Illustration (which encompassed the years from 1850 until the start of the First World War), Rackham’s artistry is quite simply, unparalleled. Throughout his career, he developed a unique style, combining haunting humour with dream-like romance. Presented alongside the text, his illustrations further refine and elucidate this carefully collated anthology.”

The book measures 9” x 6” with 286 pages. Arthur Rackham’s signature appears on the limitation page.

Condition Report:  The binding is in FINE condition. Internally, the book is very clean with some offsetting and foxing to the original pictorial endpapers and a brief inscription, “Christmas, 1934”, to the flyleaf. Overall, this is a full leather custom binding that houses the first edition of one of Arthur Rackham’s most beloved works.

Photographs of the binding and some stock illustrations from the book appear in the photo section of the listing.