Mother Goose. The Old Nursery Rhymes.

London: William Heinemann,, [1913]. First trade edition, later issue, of Rackham's interpretation of these traditional nursery rhymes. Hudson notes that the artist's primary intention with the illustrations was "to amuse... here Rackham laid himself out to please the children, and was completely successful" (p. 94). Rackham is known for including self-caricatures in his works: here, he depicted himself standing next to the initial I at the opening of the first chapter. Moreover, the illustration at page 41 - "The house that Jack built" - is a drawing of his own home in Chalcot Gardens. The bibliographies state that the first impression of the trade edition is dated 1913 on the title page verso and has pictorial endpapers. This copy, with plain endpapers and no date, belongs to a later issue. Octavo. Original grey cloth, spine and front cover lettered and decorated with pictorial designs in blue, green, and red, top edge green. Colour frontispiece and 12 similar plates, all printed on plate paper and with captioned tissue guards, black and white illustrations in text, title page printed in blue and black. Spine toned and slightly leaning, touch of wear at extremities, small damp stain to lower corner of front cover, superficial split to front inner hinge, contents a little shaken, intermittent spots of foxing, otherwise clean. A very good copy. Latimore & Haskell, pp. 40-1; Riall, p. 115. Derek Hudson, Arthur Rackham: His Life and Work, 1975.