Arthur Rackham: An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog, From The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith

In 1929, George G. Harrap & Co, Ltd., published a splendid new edition of Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield with illustrations by Arthur Rackham. With this volume, Harrap introduced the practice of setting aside some ten "special copies" with original drawings produced by Rackham that did not appear in the edition. Recently, Peter Harrington brough copy no. 2 to the market. Rackham's original drawing illustrates Goldsmith's An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog from Chapter 17. Priced at over $28,000 US, it found a buyer in less than a week.

Endpapers

Arthur Rackham
AbeBooks listing as priced on May 12, 2026

Sold!

Arthur Rackham
AbeBooks listing ended by May 17, 2026

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Vicar-Wakefield-RACKHAM-Arthur-illus-GOLDSMITH/32444214230/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook_high

Arthur Rackham
AbeBooks item description

05286

Arthur Rackham: Aesop's Fables Limited Edition, No. 1103/1450

David Brass Rare Books, Inc., of Calabasas, California, offers a signed, limited edition of Arthur Rackham's exceptional Aesop's Fables (William Heinemann, 1912). 

The price is $3,250.

Title page

Signed limitation page, no. 1103 of 1450

I am most intrigued by the announcement of a 1912 exhibition of Rackham's original book illustrations at London's Leicester Galleries:

The North Wind and the Sun

The Oak and the Reeds

Arthur Rackham
AbeBooks listing accessed May 24, 2026

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Aesops-Fables-RACKHAM-Arthur-illustrator-AESOP/32452382040/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=img

Arthur Rackham
AbeBooks item description

Arthur Rackham
AbeBooks store description

Note:  I was not able to attend the Arthur Rackham exhibition at Leicester Galleries in 1912 and neither were my great grandparents. Still, I might like to see the price list, from anyone who may have benefitted from art-loving great grandparents who were also pack rats.

Longtime readers may recall that I am also looking for a price list or catalogue from Peter Arno's 1932 exhibition at the Leicester Galleries.  

05277

Arthur Rackham: Out the Little Old Woman Jumped

Out the little old woman jumped, and whether she broke her neck in the fall or ran into the wood and was lost there, or found her way out of the wood and was taken up by the constable and sent to the House of Correction for a vagrant as she was, I cannot tell. But the three Bears never saw anything more of her.

—Robert Southey

Perhaps I should have begun with a spoiler alert. This version of the story, by Robert Southey, is less familiar today than the version with Goldilocks. Southey became England's Poet Laureate in 1813 and was able to dedicate his life to writing. In 1819, it will be recalled, Lord Byron famously savaged him in the Dedication to Don Juan. Southey kept writing, and in 1837 he published The Story of the Three Bears.

In this first version of the tale, the three bears were bachelors and there was as yet no blonde little girl, just a mean little old woman. Southey's story is included in The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book published in 1933 by George G. Harrap & Co, Ltd. Rackham included original watercolor drawings in the first ten numbered copies of the signed edition of four-hundred sixty. Copy no. 5 is currently offered by Peter Harrington of London, and it is in this copy that Rackham chose to illustrate the little old woman jumping from a window.

Arthur Rackham
Peter Harrington listing accessed April 29, 2026

https://www.peterharrington.co.uk/the-arthur-rackham-fairy-book-186445.html

Arthur Rackham
Peter Harrington item description

Note:  I would like to hear from collectors with other "specials" like this one bearing original watercolor drawings by Arthur Rackham. 

05256

Arthur Rackham: The Little Mermaid's Home Life

London publisher George G. Harrap gave us an edition of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales in 1932 featuring illustrations by Arthur Rackham. A signed edition was issued of five hundred twenty-five copies, five hundred of which were offered for sale. The first nine of these included original illustrations by Rackham; eight of these were for sale to the public.

Copy eight is today on the market from Whitmore Rare Books, Inc., of Pasadena. It contains an original illustration which Rackham has titled The Little Mermaid's Home Life. The book is priced at $37,500. 

Me, I'm just browsing.

Pouring tea underwater must be a neat trick. Ditto for keeping sugar cubes from dissolving. Anderson's mermaid has some distinctly British tastes.

Spine

The limitation page

Title page

Arthur Rackham
AbeBooks listing accessed March 28, 2026

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Fairy-Tales-Signed-limited-edition-original/32414564551/bd

Arthur Rackham
AbeBooks item descritpion

05246

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Illustrated by Arthur Rackham, No. 496/1130

Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller  of London offers a rare copy of the 1907 edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Arthur Rackham. It is copy no. 496 of the limited edition of 1130, signed by Rackham who added a small drawing of the Mad Hatter in profile.

Arthur Rackham
AbeBooks listing accessed February 20, 2026

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Alices-Adventures-Wonderland-RACKHAM-Arthur-illus/32394452246/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook

https://wise.com/us/currency-converter/usd-to-gbp-rate

05206