Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. First Rackham Edition, 1907.

CARROLL, Lewis [RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator; DOBSON, Austin, proem]. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. London: William Heinemann; New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., [1907].

First Rackham Edition, First Trade Impression. Octavo (8vo). xi, 162, [2] pp. Publisher’s olive-green cloth, upper board pictorially stamped in gilt with Rackham’s design of Alice, titles to upper board and spine in dark green, top edge green, illustrated endpapers. With a proem by Austin Dobson. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham with 13 color plates, including frontispiece, each with captioned tissue guard, and 14 black-and-white line drawings. With the first-impression advertisements for Rip Van Winkle at front and The Children and the Pictures by Pamela Tennant at rear. Without the scarce dust wrapper.

The first trade edition of Rackham’s celebrated interpretation of Carroll’s classic, published in the same year as the signed limited edition. One of the defining Golden Age illustrated editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Provenance: Ownership inscription of John Hughes Rutherford, later Sir John Hugo Rutherford, 2nd Baronet, to the front pastedown. Rutherford was Conservative Member of Parliament for Liverpool Edge Hill from 1931 to 1935. A later gift tag printed with a reproduction of a Rackham illustration is laid in, inscribed: “Mum & Dad / A Happy Christmas / Lots of Love / Tim and Rosie.”

Condition: Contents complete, with foxing to edges and preliminary leaves and scattered foxing internally; all color plates and captioned tissue guards present. Binding remains firm, with a slight spine lean; hinges and joints sound. Cloth rubbed and bumped at corners, with slight fraying at spine ends, darkening to spine, and a large area of discoloration to the rear board. A Good to Very Good copy in the original decorated cloth, distinguished by notable provenance.

Reference: Latimore & Haskell, pp. 28–29.
[Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover; Illustrated.]