The Romance of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.: Abridged from Malory's Morte D'Arthur.

London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, , 1917. An ideal edition of a very characteristic old English classic First trade edition, first impression, attractively bound. Rackham was commissioned to produce this wartime publication to inspire the British public with the heroic deeds and battles of their forebears. A contemporary review in The Bookman stated that "the beauty and bizarre loveliness of the tales seem to have passed by some subtle alchemy into Mr Arthur Rackham's fanciful, whimsical, imaginative drawings in colour and black-and-white... This is an ideal edition of a very characteristic old English classic" (December 1917). Quarto (202 x 162 mm). Near-contemporary red calf by Bayntun (Rivière), Bath, spine with raised bands, flower, knight and shield gilt tools in compartments, covers bordered with a double gilt fillet, intricate gilt decoration to board edges and turn-ins, marbled endpapers, edges gilt. Colour frontispiece and 15 similar plates with captioned tissue-guards, black and white illustrations in text, head- and tailpieces, all by Rackham. Colour expertly retouched at spine ends and corners, occasional spot of foxing to contents, else clean. An excellent copy. Latimore & Haskell, pp. 47-8; Riall, p. 130.