Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$1550.00 + shipping
Description: 134 pages. 4to, 30 x 24 cm. Limited edition signed by Rackham with no limitation stated. Forty tipped-in full-page mounted color plates with lettered tissue guards, plus black and white illustrations in the text. "His interpretations of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and WIND IN THE WILLOWS, for example, have become definitive, and continue to challenge later illustrators to find new approaches." [see: HAMILTON. p.9 "Arthur Rackham A Biography"]. Toning [approx. half centimeter fore-edge and foot] of title, front cover lightly soiled, lacks ties. Orig. decorated cream colored cloth. Teg. Very good
Seller: Royoung Bookseller, Inc. ABAA, Ardsley, NY, U.S.A.
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer-Night's Dream. William Heinemann, London, 1908.
Price: US$2000.00 + shipping
Description: 11.25 x 9 inches. Full red crushed moroccor by J. May. Spine in six compartments titled in gilt and with remaining compartments stamped with corner and central devices surrounded by a gilt rule, boards with double rectangular panel design and corner devices. One half inch split to upper front joint, faint wear, still a fine copy. First Rackham edition, limited issue. One of 1000 copies, signed by Arthur Rackham.
Seller: THE HERMITAGE BOOKSHOP, Denver, CO, U.S.A.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Description: 134 [1] pp. Illustrated with tipped-in color plates by Arthur Rackham; with printed tissue overleaves; additional illustrations in black and white. Folio, publisher's gilt vellum, t.e.g. (original ribbon ties lacking). First edition; No. 460 of 1,000 copies signed by Arthur Rackham. A few letters of the gold lettering on the spine slightly rubbed; a few minor spots to the vellum; a few spots of foxing to the tissue overleaves; but a fresh, unworn, attractive copy.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$3250.00 + shipping
Description: "An Almost Perfect Setting for Rackham's Devic Imagination" Edition de Luxe Signed by Arthur Rackham [RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator]. SHAKESPEARE, William. A Midsummer-Night's Dream. With Illustrations by Arthur Rackham. London: William Heinemann, 1908. Edition de Luxe, limited to 1,000 numbered copies signed by the artist, this being copy No. 926. Large quarto (11 1/2 x 9 1/16 inches; 292 x 231 mm.). [6], 134, [1, blank], [1, printer's slug] pp. Forty color plates mounted on brown art paper, with descriptive tissue guards. Original vellum over boards pictorially stamped and lettered in gilt. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Later silk ties. Bookplate of Agnes Marion Armitage. A bit of mild toning to vellum at edges. Spine a little 'mottled'. Still an excellent copy. "Within twelve months appeared Shakespeare's A Midsummer-Night's Dream, De la Motte Fouqué's Undine, and the Grimm brothers' Fairy Tales, all very different in quality and feeling, as demanded by the texts, but all of extremely high quality. The Dream was, of course, an almost perfect setting for Rackham's devic imagination -- perhaps only bettered by the opportunity of The Tempest -- with the result that some of the fairies, elves and goblins he created for this play are among his finest colour images, and almost all the plates echo perfectly the mysterious interweaving of lightness and depth in this great work. Many of the formal plates are exquisite, whether they depict the principal events of the main theme of the story, such as the translated Bottom with his ass-head mocked by tree sprites, or the night-rule of Titania's haunted grove, those incidents within the subsidiary action, with details hardly dreamed of by Shakespeare, such as the gnomish knife-grinder in a motley group of fairies. Some of the floriated headings for the Dream are the finest of Rackham's line at the time, as for example the heading vignette for Act One, Scene One, which with typical Rackham irrelevance spreads its tendrils over the page, and into the text, ignoring the fact that the setting is supposed, according to Shakespeare, to be the Palace of Theseus, and throwing us immediately into a tangle-wood Rackhamerie, with mice, pixies and a sleeping maiden." (Fred Gettings. Arthur Rackham, pp. 117-123). Latimore and Haskell, p. 32. Gettings, p. 177. Riall, p. 87.
Seller: David Brass Rare Books, Inc., Calabasas, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$3537.26 + shipping
Description: Signed limited edition, number 438 of 1,000 copies signed by the illustrator Arthur Rackham, for sale in Great Britain and Ireland. In A Midsummer Night's Dream Rackham "developed his gift for drawing witches, gnomes, fairies, and anthropomorphized trees and brought them to a pitch of vivid characterization, sometimes with an unsettling frisson of horror" (ODNB). Latimore & Haskell, p. 32; Riall, p. 87. Quarto (273 x 221 mm). Mid-20th-century blue morocco by Bayntun-Riviere, spine lettered in gilt, compartments and covers panelled in gilt, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Colour frontispiece and 39 colour plates with captioned tissue-guards mounted on heavy brown paper, black and white illustrations in the text, all by Rackham; title page printed in olive-green & black. Light spotting on occasion to contents; still a fine copy in a handsome binding.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Shakespeare, William (Rackham, Arthur). Midsummer Night's Dream. Heinemann, 1908.
Price: US$4500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First Edition. A sharp copy of this limited edition of 1000 copies SIGNED by Arthur Rackham. The book is in nice shape. The binding is tight, and the boards are crisp with light wear to the spine and edges. The pages are clean with no writing, marks or bookplates in the book. Overall, a lovely copy SIGNED by Rackham in collector's condition. We buy First Editions of Children's books.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.
RACKHAM, Arthur; SHAKESPEARE, William. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Heinemann, 1908.
Price: US$5080.79 + shipping
Description: First edition. Edition de Luxe, number 993 of 1000 copies signed by Rackham. Large 4to. Publisher's full white vellum with gilt lettering and design. Top edge gilt and others untrimmed. Original silk ties (rear detatched, front holding on by a thread). Housed in original card slipcase. A fine copy, with exceptionally clean vellum and bright gilt, with only a hint of dustiness to the spine. Housed in publisher's slipcase, which has been repaired at the joints and lacks a small portion from the upper edge, but has had the effect of preserving the condition of the book. Forty colour plates, mounted onto brown art paper and protected by tissue guards, and many delicate line drawings. This is one of Rackham's most sought after books, the weaving of magic and fairies being perfectly suited to his style. The limited edition is seldom encountered in such sparkling condition.
Seller: Jonkers Rare Books, Henley on Thames, OXON, United Kingdom
William Shkaespeare. A Midsummer Night's Dream. William Heinemann, London, 1908.
Price: US$5500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: London: William Heinemann, 1908. Arthur Rackham. Limited Edition. Leather Bound. H: 11 3/4", D: 9 3/4", W: 1 1/2" 1 Volume. William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Limited Edition. Bound by Chelsea Bindery in full.
Seller: Imperial Fine Books ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$57882.47 + shipping
Description: A fine original pen, ink and watercolour painting published in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1908. Signed and dated in the lower left hand corner. 26.5cm x 17cm. The image is in very good condition, with no repair or damage, there is a small spot of browning to Puck's left hand. The watercolour illustrates Act II, scene I. LITERATURE: A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (Heinemann, 1908) plate at p.22 Exhibited Leicester Galleries October 1908.
Seller: Jonkers Rare Books, Henley on Thames, OXON, United Kingdom