Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Limited edition of 550, signed and numbered by Rackham. Bound in publisher's 1/2 parchment over beige boards. Gilt images of four creatures on the front cover. Some darkening, soiling to cover. Corners lightly bumped. Blue end pages showing the silhouette of nymphs and fawns. xviii, 76 pages, 24 tipped in color plates & black and white illustrations; 26 cm. Pages are generally clean. Latimore & Haskell, p. 54; Riall, p. 143.
Seller: Sequitur Books, Boonsboro, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$1028.50 + shipping
Description: Limited edition, number 529 of 550 copies, signed by the illustrator; 4to; 24 tipped in colour plates by Arthur Rackham, including frontispiece, captioned tissue guards, headpieces, tailpieces and full-page black and white illustrations also by Rackham throughout, text clean and bright; publisher's quarter vellum, gilt lettering to spine and upper cover, gilt device to upper cover, light spotting to boards, top edge gilt, others uncut or unopened, blue pictorial endpapers, housed in a custom buff solander box; overall a very good example. An attractive limited edition of John Milton's Comus, from an edition of 550 copies signed by the artist, of which this is number 529. Comus is a masque in honour of chastity, first presented on Michaelmas in 1634 before John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater, at Ludlow Castle in celebration of the Earl's new post as Lord President of Wales.
Seller: Shapero Rare Books, London, United Kingdom
Milton, John. Comus. William Heinemann/Doubleday, Page and Company, 1921.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: #506 of 550 copies. Autographed by Rackham. 24 mounted color plates. creme colored binding. lightly stained cover edges
Seller: RP BOOKS, Newport, NH, U.S.A.
Price: US$1295.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: From limitation page: "This Edition is limited to 550 copies numbered and signed by the Artist, of which 400 are for sale in the United Kingdom, 100 for sale in the United States of America, and 50 for presentation. This is No. 514. Arthur Rackham". Folio 9 1/4" x 12" gift book design. Cream vellum spine wrap w/gilt titles, some rub. Front board features stylized gilt cover titles and several ogre-like creatures including donkey, goat, wolf and owl. Color frontispiece plate w/caption: "All amidst the Gardens fair, Of Hesperus, and his daughters three, That sing about the golden tree." Fine tissue guard w/printed caption. Thick, deckled pages near fine, clean. Gilt top edge w/some rub. Green pictorial endpapers with white silhouettes of four maidens bounding past tree and small satyr-like beings in pursuit. Bind good; hinges intact. Features two dozen tipped-in color plates on thick matte pages by the wondrous illustrator, Arthur Rackham - two more than first edition. Each plate beautifully rich with subdued colors and featuring Rackham at his most magically best; each with fine tissue guards with printed captions. Illustrations produced by the Hentschel Colour-Type Process. Additionally, includes full and partial page b&w imagery, headers, tailpieces, and decorative designs throughout. Rare near very good example of fine book craftsmanship. Full title of John Milton's Comus: "A Mask presented at Ludlow Castle 1634: on Michelmas night, before the right honorable John, Earl of Bridgewater, Viscount Brackley, Lord President of Wales, and one of His Majesty's most honorable privy council." Here, in John Milton's masque Comus, the god is described as the son of Bacchus and Circe, a post-classical invention. The tale concerns two brothers and their sister, simply called "the Lady", lost in a journey through the woods. When the Lady becomes fatigued, the brothers wander off in search of sustenance. While alone, she encounters the debauched Comus, a character inspired by the god of revelry, disguised as a villager who claims he will lead her to her brothers. Deceived by his amiable countenance, the Lady follows him, only to be captured, brought to his pleasure palace and victimised by his necromancy. Printed in Great Britain by The Cornwall Press, Ltd., Paris Garden, Stamford Street, London. Insured post. Size: 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall
Seller: The BiblioFile, Rapid River, MI, U.S.A.