London: Jarrold & Sons, 1894. First edition. First issue with advertisement for the Great Eastern Railway dated 1894. A near fine copy. Small octavo (7 1/4 x 4 7/8 inches; 185 x 124 mm.). [vi], [x], [9]-345, [3], xi-xxii, [3] pp. With seventy-three vignette drawings by Arthur Rackham in the text. Publisher's gray cloth front cover pictorially stamped in colors, spine decoratively lettered in black and red, rear cover with publisher's stamp in blind. Minimal rubbing to spine extremities, corners very slightly bumped.

For Annie Berlyn's Sunrise-Land: Rambles in Eastern England, a book about the Norfolk coastline region, Rackham designed "seventy-three illustrations, all of the vignette type, most of them based on photographs, but in a quality of line which is refreshing in appearance…" (Gettings). This is one of Rackham's earliest commissions executed alongside an illustrated guide to Wells-next-the-sea (1894), both of which include "advertisements for the Great Eastern Railway." (Hudson).

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) is perhaps the most acclaimed and influential illustrator of the Golden Age of Illustration. A prolific artist even from his youth, Rackham got his start as an illustrator working for the Westminster Budget Newspaper (1892). Over the next few years, he took on more and more commissions for children’s books, hitting his career high in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Rackham turned his imaginative pen to every classic—from Shakespeare to Dickens to Poe.

Latimore & Haskell, 3. Near Fine (Item #6383)