London & New York: William Heinemann & Doubleday, Page & Co., 1908. 25x19cm: 134pp. First Trade Edition. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. Bound by Bayntun in three quarter red morocco with gilt decorations and titling to spine with five raised bands. Top edge of text block gilt. Marbled endpapers. Illustrated with 40 full-page, tipped-in color plates with captioned tissue guards, along with many black line drawings throughout, including several that are full-page. Cover has some rubbing and light fading to spine. Occasional foxing internally. Smoothed-out crease to frontispiece. Near Fine.

In A Midsummer-Night’s Dream, Rackham "developed his gift for drawing witches, gnomes, fairies, and anthropomorphized trees and brought them to a pitch of vivid characterization, sometimes with an unsettling frisson of horror" (ODNB). Although the paintings on the plates are enchanting, his line drawings throughout the book are equally charming and lovely.

Price: $900.00

Item #10054