I have been in the rare and antiquarian book business for over forty years; my family has been in the rare books business since 1876. Rare books are in my blood.
Two Years Before The Mast
London and Glasgow: Collins' Clear-Type Press, 1904. Item #06474
Two Years Before The Mast Illustrated by Arthur Rackham
[RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator]. DANA, R[ichard] H[enry]. Two Years Before The Mast. London and Glasgow: Collins' Clear-Type Press, [September, 1904].
First edition, first issue. Octavo (7 1/8 x 4 3/4 inches; 181 x 121 mm.). 304 pp. Title-page printed in black without any mention of Arthur Rackham. Eight color plates (all with page numbers in lower right-hand corner).
Original red cloth, front cover pictorially stamped with a representation of a whaling ship, with the name SCUD plainly visible on the bows. The ship has three men standing in the bow waiting for a canoe with two Indians, all in dark blue, black and white. The title is in black with white shadows. The spine has a picture of an Indian in dark blue and white, and the title is in a gold panel with the author's name in full in dark blue below. Square leather bookplate of Scottish binder Brackenbury on front paste-down. Some light foxing, primarily on endpapers, still a very good copy.
Latimore and Haskell, page 23. Riall, page 57. Note: There are several bindings of this book. The one at hand seems to combine characteristics from several issues described by Latimore and Haskell. Riall mentions an earlier September 1904 issue, bound in green or pink cloth. The illustrations in the September issue have the number of the page they illustrate in the lower right-hand corner, while there are no page numbers on the plates of the December issue. Later editions have only the name "R.H. Dana" on the spine.
Riall p. 57.
Price: $550.00