William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Illustrated by Arthur Rackham, London, William Heinemann, and New York, Doubleday Page, 1926, numbered and signed by Rackham on the limitation page, #385 of 520 copies, with 21 color plates, including the extra plate tipped in near the front, and numerous black and white illustrations, in a fine binding by Bayntun / Riviere, of Bath, England. The first 260 numbered copies were issued for sale in Great Britain and Ireland and the next 260 copies were issued for sale in the United States, and this is the first Rackham edition for The Tempest. There are five raised bands, six gilt-ruled compartments with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling on the spine, the boards are full crushed blue-tooled Levant with gilt-ruled fillets, with wide gilt dentelles on marbled endpapers, the imprint of the printer Richard Clay and the List of Illustrations after the title page, with 185 pages of text and illustrations, and all the edges are gilt.
This copy includes the additional color plate not found in the trade edition, and this plate is captioned “Sea Nymphs hourly ring his knell …” after the limitation page.
Arthur Rackham (1867 - 1939) was an English book illustrator and one of the leading figures of the Golden Age of British book illustration; his works were noted for the use of pen and ink drawings, combined with the use of watercolor, and he illustrated books like Rip Van Winkle, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, and Fairy Tales of The Brothers Grimm - one of the top illustrators of his day.
The book is 4 To. and measures 11 x 9 in. wide, and it is exquisite from stem to stern.