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104 RACKHAM, Arthur (illus.); STEEL, Flora Annie. “Mr and Mrs Vinegar at Home”. 1918 THE original artwork for the frontispiece Published within Flora Annie Steel’s English Fairy Tales in 1918. This fine watercolour accompanies the tale of “Mr and Mrs Vinegar”, the “worthy couple” who “lived in a glass pickle-jar”. It was originally reproduced as the frontispiece and is one of the 16 colour plates. Hamilton in his biography of the artist notes that the publishers paid Rackham an advance of £1,000 for English Fairy Tales and, as an indication of his growing status as an illustrator, this was “the largest he had yet received” (p. 128). Reviewing the book in the New York Tribune , Willis Fletcher Johnson stated that “never . . . shall we hope to see more perfect pictures of scenes in childhood’s histories than these of Mr Rackham’s” (p. 8).
and publicity benefits – was that he was diverted from book illustration” (pp. 126–8). The artist’s instructions on the reverse reads: “Note: The limit for reproduction is marked by a pencil line. Mounts should be removed first. They are only for protection”. Original drawing (270 × 235 mm) on artist’s board (272 × 241 mm), fine ink and watercolour, signed (“Arthur Rackham”) lower right, with “1. ‘The Letter’”, the artist’s name and address, and reproduction instructions in the artist’s hand on reverse, mounted, framed, and glazed (framed size 456 × 417 mm). Some minor toning below mount; else fine and unfaded. ¶ James Hamilton, Arthur Rackham: A Life with Illustration , 1990. £37,500 [154961]
early 1920s. The series helped alter the public’s perception of Rackham’s oeuvre. Hamilton in his biography of the artist states that “Rackham’s largest single commission for the US was not for a book but for a series of soap advertisements . . . Colgate commissioned thirty drawings on the theme of the Early English Aristocracy to advertise Cashmere Bouquet Soap, which they billed as ‘The Aristocrat of Toilet Soaps’. Spread over the years 1922–25, this commission . . . affected the particular tone of his reputation in America. From being the ‘Goblin Master’, Rackham was now being seen by the new audience of popular newspaper and magazine readers as the creator of Hollywood style, Jane Austenesque, crinolined fantasties”. During the campaign Hamilton notes that “the original drawings were exhibited in art galleries throughout America, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The price Rackham paid, however, for spending an extended length of time on the Colgate project – for all its financial
Original drawing (295 × 255 mm) on card (312 × 262 mm), laid down on board, fine ink and watercolour, signed (“Arthur Rackham”) lower left, mounted, framed, and glazed (framed size 450 × 407 mm). Fine and unfaded. ¶ James Hamilton, Arthur Rackham: A Life with Illustration , 1990; Willis Fletcher Johnson, “Good Books for Young Readers”, New York Tribune , 16 November 1918. Exhibited: Sheffield City Art Gallery, December 1979 – April 1980, item 47. £37,500 [154985] 105 RACKHAM, Arthur. “The Letter”. 1922
Original watercolour for a “Jane Austenesque” fantasy
One of the artist’s illustrations for Colgate and Company’s adverts for “Cashmere Bouquet Soap” and, presumably, published in American newspapers or periodicals in the
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
CHILDREN’S BOOKS & ORIGINAL ARTWORK
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