Arthur Rackham MIDSUMMER NIGHT DREAM, fairy SHAKESPEARE

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*** A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare Written out by  Graily Hewitt Illustrated by  Arthur Rackham First UK Rackham edition with these illustrations, in the original dust jacket Published byGeorge Weidenfeld and Nicolson Limited, London 1977 (from 1928 MS .) *** First edition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, as written out by Graily Hewitt, illustrated by Arthur Rackham and published by George Weidenfeld and Nicolson Limited, London in 1977. Printed in America. Large hardback in dust jacket, red cloth boards with gilt decorations to front, gilt lettering to spine, 15 full-page colour illustrations (many blank to reverse), illustrated colour title page, 1 half-page colour illustration, numerous line drawings (some printed in sepia), unpaginated. Approximate size 12.2 x 9.3 inches (31 x 23.7 cm). Two decades after his 1908 masterpiece A Midsummer Night’s Dream had been published, the inimitable Arthur Rackham was commissioned by the William Augustus Spencer Collection in the New York Public Library – a collection “of the finest illustrated books that can be procured, of any country and in any language” – to produce a special, unique manuscript copy of Shakespeare ’ s celebrated fairy play, completely different in content from his earlier version. According to a letter written by Rackham to the Library Director early in 1928, he proposed, among others, twelve full-page watercolour pictures plus various decorations, and suggested the calligrapher and illuminator Graily Hewitt for the writing out of the text. The commission followed on 11th April 1928.This is the very first published edition of the manuscript, including all Rackham’s original illustrations – stylistically very much akin to the artwork in his 1926 edition of Shakespeare’s The Tempest , and with a similar Art Nouveau flavour. Interestingly, Rackham was to produce yet another set of illustrations for the play in 1939, for the Limited Editions Club.Book complete and intact, near fine, with no inscriptions. Contents very clean, with no flaws apart from very slight creasing/bumping in upper corner area intermittently throughout (original production flaw), plus two tiny spots (foxing) to one spread. Top of page block with a little spotting plus one small mark. Binding tight. Boards as shown: very clean, protected by dust jacket, with only one small white mark to lower tip. Unclipped jacket with usual edge wear, rubbing, creasing and tears, plus one tiny chip.A very collectable copy of this beautiful Rackham work. One of several illustrated titles I am listing this week. Please see scans for details. To see all my auctions, please on eBay’s US site (with prices in dollars), or to view on eBay’s UK site (with bid amounts displayed both in UK and US currency). For shipping costs and payment details , please scroll down to foot of listing, below scans. Any queries please email me before end of auction. *** *** Shipping from UK: Please note that my items are located in the UK. All goods are securely packed, with multiple purchases combined w possible . Any customs charges are the responsibility of the buyer. Shipping cost s (estimated): This is a large and heavy book: over 1 kg packed weight! Within UK : £4.95 first class, or £9.15 Special Delivery . Europe : US $12.30 standard air mail. All other countries, including US : US $23.55 standard air mail, or $4.00 * surface mail (very slow: can take 3 months or more!). For all non-UK countries, priority mail is an extra £3.70, w required. This is via Royal Mail’s International Signed-For service. Airsure at £4.50 is also available for some countries, with the benefit of full tracking. Signed-For is always recommended for high-value items , but usually optional (I do sometimes make exceptions, particularly for countries such as Italy or Poland, w the postal service is known to be unreliable) . Please note that ... read more

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