Featured 1907 1st Edition Alices Adventures in Wonderland

I have a 1907, 1st edition Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

London William Heinemann, New York Doubleday Page & Co.

Bound in green leather with a green cloth cover. Gold gilt lettering on the spine. Gold gilt griphon & mocking turtle on the cover.

It looks like a brand new book (I thought it was when I recently packed it up to move), practically perfect. It's never been completely opened. It is inscribed on the cover page; the name of the original owner, dated Christmas 1907

I believe I bought it in London in the 80’s. Values are all over the place on books like this. Any idea where/how I can get an accurate valuation?

 

calling @2manybooks

 

photo's.........?

 

The first place I usually go is a used book site to see what comparable volumes are on offer for. Have you been here yet? It appears that there are lots of 1907 volumes. This may help you identify the specifics of yours.

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Se...'s adventures in wonderland&yrh=1907&yrl=1907

Debora

 

As Debora has said, abebooks is the best place to begin research on a specific antiquarian book. You want to look for comparative examples that match on all points - publisher, publication date, binding, etc. Look for offers that include a photograph that says "Seller Image", which means it is a photo of the actual book the seller has, as opposed to a stock image.

Looking at the current listings for this version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, I see a few issues regarding your copy. I believe the true first edition of this version was published by William Heinemann in London, in 1907. Several of the dealers on Abe note that the first edition did not have a publication date printed in the book (noted as "ND" for No Date), but that later printings did show the publication date.

The fact that your copy includes both Heinemann and Doubleday Page & Co as the publisher complicates things. Doubleday & Page bought a controlling interest in William Heinemann in 1921, after Heinemann's death. So I suspect your copy was published after 1921, although the copyright might be listed as 1907. It would be helpful to see a photograph of the title page and the copyright page in your book.

I am also confused about your description of the binding as "green leather with a green cloth cover". That sounds rather weird. Again, a photograph would be helpful.

 

Thanks for your detailed and considered remarks. I always learn a lot from you.

 

Allright, my partner has done some more research on this:

"I have checked Arthur Rackham: A Bibliography by Latimore & Haskell, 1936, as well as Arthur Rackham by James Hamilton, 1990.
Alice was going to come out of copyright in 1907, so Heinemann decided to commission the then-very popular illustrator Rackham (on the heels of his Peter Pan and Rip Van Winkle) to do new illustrations. This was controversial because the original Tenniel illustrations were considered perfect, a beloved part of the story. Anyway, the original edition was co-published by Heinemann & Doubleday (a common practice at the time, to have a British & an American publisher share expenses) in white cloth with gilt titling & decorations, limited to 1130 numbered copies, no date on title page, page size 9" x 11", 13 full color illustrations mounted on brown paper, 14 b/w drawings, pictorial endsheets. The trade edition has the same number of illustrations, but none are mounted on different paper, and the page size is 5¾" by 8"; it is bound in green cloth with dark green titling, but the same gilt cover design as the limited edition [with the griffon and mock turtle on the front]. The American edition is in red cloth with white titling and a color plate on the front cover, though there was also an American edition of 550 copies signed by the publishers in green cloth with gilt titling, the same size as the British limited edition, with mounted plates. There is no edition noted in leather, so I think the OP's copy is rebound - which has a complicated effect on value, depending on the condition & quality of the binding. There is no note on the number of copies in each trade edition, but it would have been, I think, in the high thousands, and there were numerous later printings. The trade editions were issued with dust jackets; the limited editions might not have been - the bibliography does not specify."

So, I was confused by the fact that none of the first editions I found on ABE bothered to mention that the publisher was both Heinemann and Doubleday Page. But I double checked some with more images, and they do show both publishers on the title page.

So, it sounds like you may have a copy of the first "trade" edition (not one of the limited editions), that may have been rebound to include some leather. This may explain why it looks like new, but it complicates arriving at a fair value.

Here is a good example of the first trade edition:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Bo...entlyadded=all&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image11

Here is a list from abebooks of listings with seller images, sorted in descending order with the expensive limited editions first:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Se...+in+wonderland&xpod=on&cm_sp=pan-_-srp-_-pics

Without more photos of your specific copy, I don't think we can say more.

 

The penciled inscription in the front cover reads: 1st Rackham Edition £145

I have been through Abe's books and all of the other antique book sellers I can find online. There are similar-ish, and not nearly as in good condition, but nothing like this one.

 

On closer inspection, there does not appear to be a publication date anywhere. Curiouser and curiouser...

 

Mari
Could you please go back and edit your post with the pictures to "full image" There should be a place right at the top of the pictures that says thumbnails and full images.

 

i'm on it. Obvi a newby, sorry.

 

No problem. I was just trying to help you get the best feedback.

 

Thanks for posting the additional photographs. It does look like you have a first of the trade edition, which has been rebound at some time in its history. With leather on the spine and corners it would be described as "half leather". It is a nice binding - they retained the original cloth on the front and back boards. But it is not an original publisher's binding. That is why you cannot find a similar example. If all the plates are present, and everything else is correct, the value would probably be comparable to (or possibly a little less) than a first trade edition in good or very good original condition.

 

Phew! Wow. Amazing that you can see/know all of that!

It appears everything between the covers is perfect and intact. If by plates you mean illustrated plate pages, then yes, they are all there.

Given everything here is unusual, is it usual to rebind a book like this? And is there any way of discovering when it was rebound? Would it make any difference in value to know when it was rebound?

 

It is not uncommon to rebind a valuable book that has been damaged. The spine and corners of a book are subject to the most wear and tear, so the binder has replaced those portions. A high end dealer may have such work done to save a book, and make it saleable. It may be that the dealer you bought it from had it rebound. There certainly does not appear to be much wear on it. Condition is more important than age, in terms of value.

My partner has been a book dealer for over 30 years, and his father was a library conservator and book binder. So he is quite familiar with binding styles.

 

Nice post! I very much enjoyed reading it.

 

I will pass your message on to P., the primary author.

 

Absolutely agreed, incredible posting. I've learned so much, thank you.