EPILOGUE
changing economic situation, the general trend has been upward, and these handsome books have always found favour.
There is, however, plenty of opportunity for the Rackham collector outside this expensive field. Apart from the de-luxe series, there are the unlimited editions of the same works, of which the first impressions, sought by collectors, have also appreciated in value in similar proportions; and there are many other books illustrated by Rackham which were never issued in special limited editions. Then there are books including illustrations by Rackham amongst others by different artists; these may often be found by assiduous searchers, to their advantage, lurking unsuspected on bookshop shelves.
The enthusiast who cares to go even further can look for the many periodicals published during Rackham’s early professional years which contain his illustrations for stories and articles, sometimes in his characteristic manner and sometimes far from it. In journals from Little Folks to The Ladies’ Field his fine line may be recognized. Often his initials identify the work, but the drawings are not always signed, and a need for detective ingenuity creeps in when one encounters the initials of another ‘A.R.’ who was a block-maker and not an illustrator.
Altogether, the hunt for books illustrated by Rackham has already provided much pleasure for those who are disposed to take it up, and may well provide a great deal more, whatever the current prices may happen to be (and they will always vary according to the circumstances of a sale and the condition of the book). It might be mentioned that the Peter Pan Portfolio (1912), containing twelve enlarged plates of illustrations in the 1906 Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, is something of a freak in the Rackham bibliography. High prices have been paid for it, because it is scarce, and because the plates can be resold separately, but the Portfolio is a law unto itself and no reliable guide to the Rackham market.
These Peter Pan prints should perhaps rank with Rackham’s
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