Arthur Rackham Ink Illustration, ca. 1920

Appraised on: August 6, 2011

Appraised in: Atlanta, Georgia

Appraised by: Laura Crockett

Category: Paintings & Drawings

Episode Info: Cats and Dogs (#1619)
Atlanta (#1613)

Originally Aired: April 16, 2012

IMAGE: 1 of 2  

Appraisal Video: (1:59)

GUEST: I sort of found it by chance. I was shopping an online auction. I like to collect old books, and I love Arthur Rackham anything. And I came across this, and it said it was a signed print, and it had a "purchase now" price, and I jumped on it, and we think it's not a print; we think it's an original.

APPRAISER: How much did you pay for it?

GUEST: One hundred dollars.

APPRAISER: What started your love of Arthur Rackham?

GUEST: My mother and her mother before that, we have a lot of fairytale books, and he's done so many of them. And she taught me to love art, and she gave me a lot of his books when I was young.

APPRAISER: Well, I love Arthur Rackham, too. And he is one of the most important British illustrators of children's books. And some of them are quite scary, like Grimm's Fairytales. Beautiful illustrations, though. This is an ink illustration. Over here in the left-hand corner you'll also see the "AR" monogram that he's developed into this drawing. And we find in the book the illustration for the chapter called "The Birth of Bran." And we see this woman with two wonderful greyhounds, all entwined in this very sinuous vine pattern here. Very typical of the Art Nouveau period. But he was actually illustrating in the early '20s. I think this book was originally published in 1920. Now, he did a lot of works with watercolor that were very detailed. And so it may not be as serious a work of art. However, it's a beautiful woman with dogs, and I would say at auction-- and I'm going to say conservatively-- that this would bring $4,000 to $6,000.

GUEST: Wow. That's a good buy.