Description
Number 194 of 560 copies signed and numbered by Arthur Rackham. A Very Good+/Near Fine copy. Maintaining all 24 color plates on heavy olive paper. Bound in a blue crushed morocco binding with pictorial leather inlays featuring two monks on the front cover by Birdsall Northampton, London. Gilt title to spine with original deluxe gilt velum bound in at rear, with blue silk endpapers and ex libris bookplate on front paste-down. Top of text block gilt with rest of edges uncut. Some wear to extremities, including wear to the lower board, front hinge repaired, and a crack starting on the rear hinge. Interior clean. Written under the nom-de-plume of clergyman Richard Harris Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends was a collection of myths and ghost stories that blended humor with the grotesque. Largely composed in rhyme, the stories emphasize figures such as saints and gods; and they were published to delight a Victorian audience increasingly interested in sensationalist gothic literature. The 1907 deluxe edition was a reprinting of Rackham's 1898 edition, printed on large paper with additional illustrations. Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) is perhaps the most acclaimed and influential illustrator of the Golden Age of Illustration. A prolific artist even from his youth, Rackham got his start as an illustrator working for the Westminster Budget Newspaper (1892). Over the next few years, he took on more and more commissions for children’s books, hitting his career high in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Rackham turned his imaginative pen to every classic—from Shakespeare to Dickens to Poe. ""The firm began in 1792 when William Birdsall purchased the small bookbinding business of John Lacy in Northampton, England. In the 1840's, Anthony Birdsall, great-nephew of the founder, bought the business and with his son, Richard, made it into one of the better known firms in the trade. The firm did the standard bindings which the general public requested as well as specializing in relieures-de-luxe and restoration work. Business continued to thrive until after the Second World War. When the factory closed its doors in 1961, it was the oldest firm in Northampton, with an international reputation for fine binding and restoration work"" (University of Toronto). Rail 83. Very Good +.
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