Books

1904. Fine. Original watercolor and pen and ink drawing on paper, mounted onto card (drawing measures approximately 270 x 181 mm). Signed and dated by Arthur Rackham in 1904 (lower right). Verso of card with: "Received Jan 30 wtd (?) Feb 13" and "5086 - [unintelligible] Heinemann." Mounted on card. From Rip Van Winkle, printed tissue guard with: "Even to this day they never hear a thunderstorm about the Catskill but they say Hendrik Hudson and his crew are at their game of ninepins." Last sold at Heritage Auctions, 2019. Before that at Sothebys in 2002 for 10,755 pounds. A charming scene of two young women running for shelter at the break of a storm with several white ducks scattering in the courtyard, made for the "first book illustrated wholly by Rackham to be issued in a limited edition" (Riall). "Arthur Rackham's illustrations for Rip Van Winkle were the first major works of his career as a book illustrator, and they established Rackham as the leading decorative…

Rip Van Winkle is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, published in 1819 as part of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. The story is set in New York's Catskill Mountains and follows Rip Van Winkle, a Dutch American villager who falls asleep before the American Revolution and wakes up twenty years later to a very different world. His disappearance and return are met with incredulity by those around him. This tale is known for its themes of change and continuity, the American past, and individualism.