PETER PAN IN KENSINGTON GARDENS From The Little White Bird.

A 'new edition' with Arthur Rackham illustrations. Publisher's original green cloth with title titles and illustration to the upper board and spine, in dustwrapper. Illustrated with 50 tipped in colour plates, each with a captioned tissue guard, 8 full page black and white drawings, and smaller line drawings throughout the text. A superb fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and gilt bright and fresh. The contents, with a bookseller's label to the upper left corner of the front pastedown (hidden by the dustwrapper flap) are otherwise clean throughout and without foxing, inscriptions or stamps. Complete with near fine dustwrapper that is a little rubbed at the extremities and mildly toned to the spine. The underside has a thin strip of archival reinforcement at the head of the spine and upper fold corners. A beautiful example.

The artist's highlight and one of the most beautifully illustrated books of the Golden Age. First published in 1912, the 'new edition' of Peter Pan is considered the best Rackham edition, with a new colour frontispiece and 7 new black and white illustrations not present in the 1906 edition. It is also notable for being the first of the 50 plate editions to bind the plates throughout the text. The book remained in print this large format up until 1929; the present example must date from 1919 or later as it lists the publisher Hodder and Stoughton as a limited company.