Offered at Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) in an online sale that ran until December 1 under the title of The Fantasy World of Arthur Rackham was a collection of 31 original ink and watercolour artworks by the artist from the collection of American photographer Shirley Carter Burden (1908-89).
Four of the more expensive lots are reproduced here, but in reporting the fact that around a third of those lots failed to sell, I should note that these were largely to be found among the illustrations that Rackham made for a 1929 edition of Oliver Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield.
The Queen never left off quarrelling with the other players, and shouting ‘Off with his head!’ or, ‘Off with her head!’”. Signed and dated ‘07, this illustration was made for an edition of Alice in Wonderland published in that year. Sold at £55,000