Arthur Rackham, Sir Thomas Malory

A limited edition of King Arthur, which has been signed by the illustrator.

• Sir Thomas Malory (English, died 1471).
• Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
• London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1917.
• Illustrated with 16 tipped-in color plates (titled tissue guards after each plate) and 70 black and white illustrations.
• Limited to 500 numbered copies signed by the illustrator Arthur Rackham, this being copy #243.
• Bound in the original publisher's gilt stamped vellum, top edge gilt, others uncut, housed in a 1/2 gilt lettered & decorated, blue morocco clamshell slipcase.

Rackham received his commission for this superbly illustrated edition of Malory's masterpiece (first published by Caxton in 1485) while World War I still raged—a fact that perhaps explains his illustrations' generally dark view of the Matter of Britain. From Arthur's first unsheathing of Excalibur in the midst of fierce battle beneath overcast skies, to his tragic clash with his traitorous son on the dark fields of Camlann, Rackham confronts readers with combat, conflict and death. Despite (or perhaps even because of) this grim realism within a fantastic context, "Rackham's work became balm for wounded soldiers, as one mother wrote: ' ...When [my son] was getting better from very bad wounds... your illustrations of Books were his great joy and delight'" (Hamilton, 112).