"There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favourite book."
— Marcel Proust
Arthur Rackham | First Editions
1867 - 1939
London-born artist Arthur Rackham studied drawing at evening classes at Lambeth School of Art (1884) for 7 years whilst working full-time in insurance. He began to illustrate books, using the then new half-tone process his fame spreading upon publication of his illustrated Grimm's Fairy Tales. In 1905 his illustrated Rip van Winkle introduced him to the US public; one year later Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens was published. Rackham was made a full member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour in 1908, and was honoured abroad with gold medals from Milan (1906) and Barcelona (1911).His illustrations for many classics followed including Alice In Wonderland (1907), Gulliver's Travels (1909), Aesop's Fables (1912), A Christmas Carol (1915), King Arthur (1917) Cinderella (1919), Sleepy Hollow (1928), The Night Before Christmas (1931), Hans Andersen (1932), The Pied Pier of Hamelin (1934) and Poe's Tales (1935). His final book was The Wind In the Willows (1940).
See below our stock of Arthur Rackham First Editions, fine bindings, sets and other collectible material.
Andersen's Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London, George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd., 1932. [Fairy tales] FIRST RACKHAM EDITION. Large octavo (25 x 19cm), pp.288. With twelve full-page coloured plates with tissue guards and many full page and in-text black and white illustrations. Publisher's russet cloth blocked in gilt, illustrated dust-wrapper in original card gift box..... More
Andersen's Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London, George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd., 1932. [Fairy tales] FIRST RACKHAM EDITION, SIGNED LIMITED deluxe issue. Large octavo (26 x 19cm), pp.288. With twelve full-page coloured plates with tissue guards and many full page and in-text black and white illustrations. Publisher's gilt-stamped parchment over boards, top edge gilt, others..... More
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. From the Little White Bird. A New Edition.
London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, no date [1912]. [Children's illustrated] REVISED 'BEST' EDITION. Quarto (29 x 22cm), pp.[8]; 126 [2]. With 50 chromolithographic plates by Rackham, as well as further occasional wood engravings. Exquisitely bound in full native red oasis morocco, gilt, by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, with gilt character tools..... More
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. From The Little White Bird.
London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1912. 'BEST EDITION' OF PETER PAN. Quarto, pp.6; 127. Bound in publisher's gilt decorated green cloth featuring four birds at head of board, and children linking arms at lower end of board. Author/illustrator/title blocked in gilt to front board and spine, additional tooling to spine..... More
Cinderella. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: William Heinemann, 1919. [Children's classic] FIRST RACKHAM EDITION. Large octavo (26 x 20cm), pp.110; [1], imprint; [1], blank. Mounted colour plate as frontispiece, with numerous silhouette and three-tone illustrations. Publisher's orange cloth spine and pictorial boards, pictorial green endpapers. Internally very clean, top corner bumped else binding is sound..... More
Cinderella. Together with The Sleeping Beauty. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: William Heinemann, 1919 and 1920. FIRST EDITIONS thus. 2 volumes, large octavos. Publisher's red and yellow pictorial covers, cloth spines, in red and grey illustrated dust-wrappers. Tipped-in colour frontispiece to each volume and numerous black and white silhouettes and three-toned illustrations. Owner name to 'Cinderella', some edge spotting to..... More
The Vicar of Wakefield.
London: George G. Harrap and Company, Limited, 1929. First Rackham Edition. 4to. With 12 illustrations in colour. Publisher's original blue cloth with gilt titles and floral decoration to, top edge gilt, illustrated end papers. Some edgespotting, very light wear to covers, few marks to upper, bookplate 'Winifred E. Briggs'. A...... More
The Vicar of Wakefield. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: George G. Harrap and Company Limited, 1929. FIRST RACKHAM EDITION. Large 8vo., pp. 232. Publisher's dark grey cloth with gilt titles and gilt decoration to spine and upper. Near fine in very good dust-wrapper, dusty and showing small tears. With 12 coloured plates and several other illustrations. Shows extremely..... More
The Wind in the Willows. With an Introduction by A.A. Milne.
London: Methuen and Co., 1950. [Children's classic] FIRST RACKHAM EDITION. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.xii; 178. Beautifully illustrated by Mr. Rackham with twelve full colour plates, including frontispiece, plus several line drawings. Elegantly bound in deep red half calf, gilt-lettered to black title labels, raised bands and top edge gilt..... More
The Wind in the Willows. With an Introduction by A.A. Milne.
London: Methuen and Co., 1950. [Children's classic] FIRST RACKHAM EDITION. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.xii; 178. Beautifully illustrated by Mr. Rackham with twelve full colour plates, including frontispiece, plus several line drawings. Elegantly bound in half green oasis morocco, gilt-lettered to burgundy title labels, raised bands and top edge green..... More
Hansel and Grethel and Other Tales.
London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1920. [Illustrated] FIRST EDITION. Quarto (26 x 20cm), pp.x; [2]; 160. Publisher's dark blue cloth blocked in gilt to spine and upper, top edge blue. With twenty tipped in plates in colour and twenty eight in-text black and white illustrations. Some offsetting to endpapers, spotting..... More
Little Brother and Little Sister, and Other Tales. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: Constable and Co., 1917. FIRST RACKHAM EDITION. Quarto (26 x 20cm). Illustrated with twelve plates in colour, on captioned grey card mounts, forty-three illustrations within the text, illustrated endpapers. Publisher's green cloth pictorially stamped and titled in gilt to spine and upper, edges untrimmed. Internally clean, exterior fine... More
A Wonder Book. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., n.d. FIRST RACKHAM EDITION. Quarto (24 x 19cm). Illustrated with twenty-four mounted colour plates with captioned tissue guards. Half red morocco, gilt, over original gilt-stamped pictorial cloth sides, t.e.g. Internally clean, externally unmarked. A fine copy in an attractive recent leather binding. More
Peer Gynt, A Dramatic Poem by Henrik Ibsen Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: George G. Harrap, 1936. FIRST RACKHAM ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Quarto, pp.[2] 256 [2]. With 12 colour illustrations by Rackham, including a frontispiece, and occasional in-text vignettes. In publisher's orange cloth with gilt titles to spine and upper board. Illustrated endpapers. With original black and gold illustrated dust-jacket. Black ink gift..... More
The Ingoldsby Legends. Or, Mirth and Marvels. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: J.M. Dent and Co., 1907. [Children's Illustrated] FIRST THUS, second Rackham illustrated edition. Quarto (26 x 20cm), pp.xx; 549 [3]. With twenty-four mounted coloured plates, captioned tissues, twelve illustrations with tint and sixty-six line drawings. Publisher's mid-green cloth pictorially stamped in gilt, illustrated endpapers, top edge gilt, fore-edge and..... More
Rip Van Winkle. With drawings by Arthur Rackham.
London: William Heinemann, 1905. FIRST RACKHAM EDITION. Quarto (25 x 19cm), with 51 mounted colour plates bound together after the text. Bound in dark green morocco over original green cloth boards with gilt design to upper. Very light spotting, plates clean without creases. Near fine. Set in Sleepy Hollow, Irving's..... More
Tales From Shakespeare. [writings/plays including Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, etc.]
London: J.M. Dent and Co., 1909. First Rackham Illustrated Edition. Quarto, with 12 colour plates and other black and white drawings. Publisher's red cloth with titles and decoration in gilt to spine and upper, top edge gilt, others tinted green, illustrated endpapers, in original dust-wrapper. Book is near fine, jacket..... More
Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Edgar Allan Poe. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: George G. Harrap, 1935. FIRST RACKHAM EDITION. Large octavo (26 x 20cm), pp.318. With 12 fine colour plates and 17 line drawings, captioned tissue guards and pictorial endpapers. In publisher's black cloth with titles and illustrations stamped in gilt to spine and upper board. Top edge black, others untrimmed..... More
Arthur Rackham's Book of Pictures. With an Introduction by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.
London: William Heinemann, 1913. [Fantasy] FIRST RACKHAM EDITION. Large octavo. (30 x 23cm). With forty-four full-page mounted colour-plate illustrations, captioned tissues, ten drawings in black and white. Smartly bound in recent half green calf, gilt, with raised bands, original cloth sides titled in gilt. Light foxing to some caption tissues..... More
Arthur Rackham's Book of Pictures. With an Introduction by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.
London: William Heinemann, 1913. [Fantasy] FIRST RACKHAM EDITION. Large octavo. (30 x 23cm), pp.44 of text, followed by forty-four full-page mounted colour-plate illustrations, captioned tissues, with ten drawings in black and white. Smartly bound in grey half morocco, gilt-lettered to black title labels, spine in six compartments with raised bands..... More
Some British Ballads. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1909. LIMITED EDITION of 575 copies of which this is No 133, SIGNED by Rackham. Large octavo (29 x 23cm), pp.136. Illustrated with 16 mounted colour plates with captioned tissues plus numerous black and white line-drawings within the text. Bound in recent dark blue full..... More
Some British Ballads. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
London: Constable and Co., Ltd., no date [1919]. [Children's illustrated] First Rackham Edition. Quarto (26 x 20cm), pp.170. With 16 mounted colour plates, each with captioned title and tissue guards. Publisher's light blue cloth pictorially stamped in gilt, illustrated endpapers (offset to first blank), lower and fore-edges untrimmed. One or..... More
The Springtide of Life. Poems of Childhood by A.C. Swinburne. With a Preface by Edmund Gosse.
London: William Heinemann, 1918. Limited Edition to 765 copies of which this is No. 602, SIGNED by Arthur Rackham. Finely bound by Zaehnsdorf in full dark green morocco with gilt titles to spine and gilt illustration to upper replicationg the publisher's original design, gilt titles to spine, marbled end papers..... More
Arthur Rackham's Book of Pictures. With an Introduction by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.
London: William Heinemann, 1913. FIRST RACKHAM EDITION. Large 8vo. (298 x 230mm). Publisher's grey cloth titled and decorated in gilt, very good with minor bumping and scuffing to extremities and a little discolouration to the spine, clean and sharp. In a good dustwrapper repaired and reinforced with tape to inside..... More
Mother Goose. The Old Nursery Rhymes. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
New York: The Century Co., 1913. FIRST US EDITION, with larger plates and format than the UK edition. Contains 13 colour plates and numerous black and white illustrations. Publisher's dark blue cloth, colour illustration pasted down to upper, gilt titles to spine. A fine copy, in chipped but bright dustwrapper..... More