“HIS ACKNOWLEDGED MASTERPIECE”: PETER PAN IN KENSINGTON GARDENS, ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR RACKHAM, FINELY BOUND BY BAYNTUN
(RACKHAM, Arthur) BARRIE, J.M. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1906. Quarto, modern full red morocco gilt with original decorative front cloth laid down, raised bands, marbled endpapers.
First trade edition of Rackham’s illustrated Peter Pan, with 50 mounted color plates.
Peter Pan wasn't always the boy from Never Land who lost his shadow and fought Captain Hook. The character's first name "came from Peter Llewelyn Davies, who when still a baby became the subject of stories told by Barrie to [Peter's older brothers]. According to these stories Peter, like all babies, had once been a bird and could still fly out of his nursery window and back to Kensington Gardens, because his mother had forgotten to weigh him at birth. From these stories came the 'Peter Pan' chapters in The Little White Bird [published 1902], afterwards re-issued with Arthur Rackham illustrations as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens" (Carpenter, Secret Gardens, 177). "The 50 color plates were unanimously praised by all who saw them. One critic wrote: 'Mr. Rackham seems to have dropped out of some cloud in Mr. Barrie's fairyland, sent by special providence to make pictures in tune with his whimsical genius" (Dalby, 76-77). This work established Rackham's worldwide reputation and remains "his acknowledged masterpiece… [Barrie praised] Rackham's rendering of the fairy world and the story of Peter and Wendy, but the book has much more to offer. The glimpses he provides of stylized London reality effectively set off the fairy life that exists in unsuspected conjunction with it, and he captures the loveliness of the Gardens themselves with masterly skill" (Ray, 204, 206). Preceded by a signed limited edition of 500 copies. Latimore & Haskell, 27. Riall, 74.
Mounted plates fine, a bit of foxing to preliminaries. Handsomely bound.