The Rainbow Book. Tales of Fun & Fancy by Mrs. M.H. Spielmann

London: Chatto & Windus, 1909. First edition. First edition in book form; the stories originally appeared in Little Folks in 1905-1906, with the same illustrations. Publisher's red cloth, front cover and spine pictorially stamped and lettered in gilt. Cream pictorial end-papers printed in olive green, top edge gilt. Slight fading to spine, small stain at top of front cover, neat ink inscription (dated 1909) on front end-papers. Collating [2], xvi, 289, [2], [1, blank], with twenty plates including a color frontispiece and seven full- page black & white plates by Arthur Rackham. In addition there are eight black & white drawings in the text by Rackham (for the stories Adventures in Wizard Land and Father Christmas at Home). There are three full-page black & white plates, and four black & white drawings in the text by Hugh Thomson (for the stories The Little Picture Girl and Christmas at the Court of King Jorum). Additional black and white plates and text illustrations by Partridge, Baumer, Rountree, and Wilhelm. End-papers and title-page designed by Carton Moore Park. This book was dedicated to Rackham's daughter, Barbara Mary Rackham. An excellent copy.

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) is perhaps the most acclaimed and influential illustrators of the Golden Age of Illustration. A prolific artist even from his youth, Rackham got his start as an illustrator working for the Westminster Budget Newspaper (1892). Over the next few years, he took on more and more commissions for children's books, hitting his career high in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Rackham turned his imaginative pen to every classic-from Shakespeare to Dickens to Poe.

An exceptional collection of both Rackham and Thomson illustrations, with their contributions in full below.

The Arthur Rackham illustrations:
The Fish-King and the Dog-Fish (color frontispiece)
Adventures in Wizard-Land (black & white headpiece) page 1
"So you've come to see the Wizard," he said (black & white plate facing page 6)
"All those poor creatures were children" (one third-page black & white drawing) page 11
He took two jewelled circlets out of a satchel (half-page black & white drawing) page 14
"I am the Bird-Fairy," she said (one third-page black & white drawing) page 19
Its head was patted graciously (black & white plate facing page 52)
They met many a quaint creature (one third-page black & white drawing) page 59
What a glorious ride that was! (black & white plate facing page 62)
She stroked it -- actually stroked it (black & white plate facing page 70)
Taking the boy and girl by a hand, he led them (black & white plate facing page 82)
The wizard, with a groan of pain, had leapt back (one third-page black & white drawing) page 87
Lying full length on the ground next to his shattered invention (one third-page black & white drawing) page 89
It was a very, very long ladder (black & white plate facing page 154)
"I suppose you know you're trespassing?" (one third-page black & white drawing) page 157
The two reindeer . . . sped rapidly away (black & white plate facing page 164)

The Hugh Thomson illustrations:
[The Little Picture Girl] (one quarter-page black & white drawing) page 103
"The Little Picture Girl" (black & white plate facing page 104)
"He mounted it very carefully" (three quarter-page black & white drawing) page 107
"In marched a stout beadle" (black & white plate facing page 110)
"Smiled as she waved good-bye" (three quarter-page black & white drawing) page 113
"Looking neither to the right nor to the left" (black & white plate facing page 232)

Riall 95. Gettings 177; Hamilton 188.