The Wind in the Willows (Folio Society Limited Edition)
GRAHAME, Kenneth (illus. Charles van Sandwyk). The Wind in the Willows. London: The Folio Society, 2008.
4to. Quarter vellum and deep green boards. Spine lettered in 22-carat gold. Cover illustration by Charles van Sandwyk stamped in three shades of foil. Upper edge gilt, others uncut. 266 pp. 16 mounted full-colour plates; more than 40 chapter headpieces and tailpieces, all by van Sandwyk. Housed in deep green buckram solander case. Centenary limited edition. Limited to 1,000 numbered copies, this being number 761, signed by the artist on the tipped-in frontispiece.
Kenneth Grahame published The Wind in the Willows in October 1908, and what began as a series of letters written to his young son Alastair became one of the most durably beloved books in the English language. It is a deceptively gentle work. On its surface it follows Mole, Rat, Badger, and the incorrigible Mr. Toad through the seasons along an English river — a world of picnics, open roads, and the deep security of burrows and boat-houses. Beneath that, it is a sustained meditation on friendship, belonging, and the particular consolations of the natural world. The chapter known as "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn," in which Mole and Rat encounter Pan at daybreak, stands as one of the strangest and most genuinely numinous passages in English children's literature — a moment in which the book briefly becomes something else entirely, and then quietly resumes. A. A. Milne's stage adaptation, Toad of Toad Hall, ran in the West End for decades; E. H. Shepard's illustrations, produced twenty years after first publication, became so thoroughly associated with the text that they are now nearly inseparable from it.
To mark the centenary in 2008, the Folio Society commissioned the Canadian artist and illustrator Charles van Sandwyk to create an entirely new suite of illustrations for a limited edition of 1,000 copies. Van Sandwyk produced over a hundred original images for the edition — sixteen full-colour plates mounted on thick paper stock, together with more than forty chapter headpieces and tailpieces — in a style that draws on the English watercolour tradition while remaining distinctly his own: warm, intimate, and alert to the particular light of Grahame's riverbank. The edition has come to be regarded as one of the most distinguished illustrated versions of the text, holding its own against the Shepard and Rackham associations that have long defined the book's visual identity. Each copy is signed by van Sandwyk on the tipped-in frontispiece.
Near fine. Some spots of foxing to the vellum spine; otherwise fine throughout. Solander case fine.
This book is currently on display in the rare book section of our Paddington store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: [email protected]
Catalogue Number: HH000303
Please note: This item is large and/or heavy. It may require additional postage costs. If so, we will contact you after purchase.
Original: $1,069.23
-65%$1,069.23
$374.23
Description
GRAHAME, Kenneth (illus. Charles van Sandwyk). The Wind in the Willows. London: The Folio Society, 2008.
4to. Quarter vellum and deep green boards. Spine lettered in 22-carat gold. Cover illustration by Charles van Sandwyk stamped in three shades of foil. Upper edge gilt, others uncut. 266 pp. 16 mounted full-colour plates; more than 40 chapter headpieces and tailpieces, all by van Sandwyk. Housed in deep green buckram solander case. Centenary limited edition. Limited to 1,000 numbered copies, this being number 761, signed by the artist on the tipped-in frontispiece.
Kenneth Grahame published The Wind in the Willows in October 1908, and what began as a series of letters written to his young son Alastair became one of the most durably beloved books in the English language. It is a deceptively gentle work. On its surface it follows Mole, Rat, Badger, and the incorrigible Mr. Toad through the seasons along an English river — a world of picnics, open roads, and the deep security of burrows and boat-houses. Beneath that, it is a sustained meditation on friendship, belonging, and the particular consolations of the natural world. The chapter known as "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn," in which Mole and Rat encounter Pan at daybreak, stands as one of the strangest and most genuinely numinous passages in English children's literature — a moment in which the book briefly becomes something else entirely, and then quietly resumes. A. A. Milne's stage adaptation, Toad of Toad Hall, ran in the West End for decades; E. H. Shepard's illustrations, produced twenty years after first publication, became so thoroughly associated with the text that they are now nearly inseparable from it.
To mark the centenary in 2008, the Folio Society commissioned the Canadian artist and illustrator Charles van Sandwyk to create an entirely new suite of illustrations for a limited edition of 1,000 copies. Van Sandwyk produced over a hundred original images for the edition — sixteen full-colour plates mounted on thick paper stock, together with more than forty chapter headpieces and tailpieces — in a style that draws on the English watercolour tradition while remaining distinctly his own: warm, intimate, and alert to the particular light of Grahame's riverbank. The edition has come to be regarded as one of the most distinguished illustrated versions of the text, holding its own against the Shepard and Rackham associations that have long defined the book's visual identity. Each copy is signed by van Sandwyk on the tipped-in frontispiece.
Near fine. Some spots of foxing to the vellum spine; otherwise fine throughout. Solander case fine.
This book is currently on display in the rare book section of our Paddington store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: [email protected]
Catalogue Number: HH000303
Please note: This item is large and/or heavy. It may require additional postage costs. If so, we will contact you after purchase.
