RICHARD WAGNER A.RACKHAM OPERA RING NIBELUNG LTD SIGNED Start Price GBP 1,350.00 Current Price GBP 1,350.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Sunday, November 23, 2008 End Time Wednesday, December 03, 2008 Location United Kingdom See more about 'RICHARD WAGNER A.RACKHAM OPERA RING NIBELUNG LTD SIGNED' Description Happy bidding, happy and peaceful reading! A wonderful set of books, Richard Wagner's Opera, The Ring Cycle, Ring of The Nibelungs, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, two volumes,  Siegfried & the Twilight of the Gods, and The Rhinegold and The Valkyrie, very special as signed limited first editions. Arthur Rackham's beautiful illustrations to these operas have served as an inspiration to many a stage production, and are amongst the best known works from The Golden Age of Illustration. Enjoy!   Book 1 : The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie, Richard Wagner, translated by Margaret Armour, illustrated by Rackham. Published by William Heinemann,London, 1910. Beautifully and profusely illustrated by Arthur Rackham with  thirty-four tipped-in full colour plates and numerous black and white small drawings and vignettes.  Limited Signed Edition, one of 1150 copies only issued. Original vellum gilt, later silk ties. Top Edge Gilt, others uncut. Illustrations tipped in on dark green-brown cardstock, with captioned tissue guards. Text on handmade, watermarked, beautiful English paper, similar to art papers, watercolour papers like Arches and Fabriano. The paper wonderful to the touch. Impressive, thick oversized quarto.  Book condition:  Externally, spotting, darkening, wear and soiling to vellum. Spine darkened and soiled. Head and foot of spine slightly bumped and slightly worn, corners minutely worn. Binding sound and tight. Boards flat. Top gilt edge slightly darkened over time. Internally, the exposed  paper edges darkened as is typical due to shelf exposure over time.  Light typical spotting to endpapers. Pages and tissue adjacent and opposite to the dark card plate mounts darkened and spotted as is typical to this edition due to the proximity of this acidic green cardstock paper, other pages clean and bright.  Some transferring of the black and white illustrations to adjacent text pages as is typical, due to the deep black inks used. This is noted on all early Heinemann and Hodder and Stoughton limited editions printed on English Handmade paper.  All of the superbly entertaining and charming plates after Arthur Rackham's excellent watercolours are in fine condition without creases, all tissue in good condition, no bookplates or inscriptions or any detracting marks.  Book II : Siegfried & the Twilight of the Gods, Richard Wagner, translated by Margaret Armour, illustrated by Rackham. Published by William Heinemann,London, 1911. Beautifully and profusely illustrated by Arthur Rackham with  thirty tipped-in full colour plates and numerous black and white small drawings and vignettes.  Limited Signed Edition, one of 1150 copies only issued. Original vellum gilt, later silk ties. Top Edge Gilt, others uncut. Illustrations tipped in on dark green-brown cardstock, with captioned tissue guards. Text on handmade, watermarked, beautiful English paper, similar to art papers, watercolour papers like Arches and Fabriano. The paper wonderful to the touch. Impressive, thick oversized quarto.  Book condition:  Externally, minor soiling and spotting to vellum, mostly on the spine. Head and foot of spine very slightly bumped, corners minutely worn. Spine darkened. Binding sound and tight. Boards flat. Top gilt edge slightly darkened over time. Internally, an old neat gift inscription dated 1911 on front free endpaper, traces of a removed bookplate. Endpapers transferred and darkened as is typical. The exposed  paper edges darkened as is typical due to shelf exposure over time. Pages and tissue guards adjacent and opposite to the dark card plate mounts darkened and spotted as is typical to this edition due to the proximity of this acidic cardstock paper, the rest of the text pages clean and bright.  Some transferring of the black and white illustrations to adjacent text pages as is typical, due to the deep black inks used. This is noted on all early Heinemann and Hodder and Stoughton limited editions printed on English Handmade paper.  All of the superbly entertaining and charming plates after Arthur Rackham's excellent watercolours are in fine condition without creases, all tissue in good condition, no bookplates or inscriptions or any detracting marks.    SHIPPING: We are happy to ship worldwide. We always combine shipping on multiple purchases. All of our items are carefully packaged, insured and appropriately labelled. We ship worldwide at cost by Recorded mail, DHL, FedEX, Parcelforce, and other reliable couriers. We use the method most appropriate for weight/value/date needed at destination by agreement with the high bidder. In the case of combined postage for small or light items, additional items usually require only an increase in insurance if the value is substantially increased, i.e., shipping two flat prints or two small bowls produces a substantial saving to shipping just one small bowl or one flat print.   Mainland UK postage is approximated and stated for buyers' convenience. UK 24HR shipping:  £ 18.50 ( 2 thick volumes, insured, recorded, trackable, well boxed to arrive safely.) All our good books are shipped in boxes and well wrapped.   USA, CANADA, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Australia, other destinations, we will ship AT COST via courier ( due to weight) or by other methods stated above as agreed with the high bidder.   CONDITIONS OF SALE: PAYMENT: Payment by Paypal, UK check/money order to our UK address, EURO check to our UK address, US/CDN check/money order to our North American address. Payment to be received within fourteen days unless otherwise agreed prior to auction end. Due to the costs of shipping to world destinations, the costs of the listings and Paypal fees, all sales are final. We do not offer refunds or exchanges for any reason unless the item has been grossly misrepresented in terms of material or quantity, i.e five teacups not six, brass not gold. 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