Item #01985 Little Brother & Little Sister. Arthur RACKHAM, Jakob and Wilhelm GRIMM.
Little Brother & Little Sister
Little Brother & Little Sister
Little Brother & Little Sister
Little Brother & Little Sister
Little Brother & Little Sister
Little Brother & Little Sister

Little Brother & Little Sister

London: Constable & Co., Ltd., 1917. Item #01985

With A Signed Extra Plate
"He Hurried Away With Long Strides"
One of 525 Copies Signed by the Artist

[RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator]. GRIMM, Jakob and Wilhelm. Little Brother & Little Sister. London: [1917].

Edition de Luxe. Limited to 525 numbered copies, signed by the artist, this being copy No. 144. Quarto (11 1/2 x 9 in; 293 x 227 mm). xi, [1], 250, [1], [1, blank] pp. Thirteen color plates mounted on brown paper, with original tissue guards. With a duplicate signed plate in the original printed envelope as issued (blank flap missing), "He Hurried Away With Long Strides".

Original gray cloth over boards with a rectangular white cloth panel on the front cover pictorially stamped and lettered in gilt. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Illustrated endpapers. A few small marks on the back cover and a small red stain on the lower joint, otherwise an excellent copy. Armorial book plate of Agnes Marion Armitage on front paste-down.

"…it was during these years that he illustrated a new Brothers Grimm title, Little Brother and Little Sister which is in effect one of his crowning achievements. In these twelve colour plates we find the most astonishing versatility of style, and an exquisite pitch of execution. The style ranges from the delicate to the virtual burlesque caricature. On the one hand is an example of pre-Raphaelite, infinitely tender portrayals of womanhood, such as 'The True Sweetheart', or the delicate realism of Maid Maleen and her waiting woman escaping from the terrible tower of her father. Yet within the same book we find the classic Rackhamerie of the gnome with his beard caught in the cleft of the semi-anthropomorphized tree, appealing to Rose-red and Snow-white for help and the Hassell-like custard-pie of the three soldiers and the long nose. This is one of the few books illustrated by Rackham from which it would be possible to select any single-colour picture in order to demonstrate Rackham's art at its finest." (Gettings. Arthur Rackham, pp. 116-117).

Lattimore and Haskell, p. 46. Riall, p. 129.

Price: $3,750.00