4to. 40 color-printed plates tipped to mounts and numerous illustrations by Rackham. (Slight toning and offsetting, some occasional spotting.) Original vellum gilt, top edge gilt, others uncut (lacking silk ties, some minor soiling); custom white morocco-tipped slipcase. Provenance: contemporary gift inscription; John Holbrook, Jr. (signature to front flyleaf).

FIRST EDITION, LIMITED ISSUE, number 889 of 1000 copies, SIGNED BY RACKHAM.  Rackham's imagery for this edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream "became the standard by which subsequent illustrations of Shakespeare's play have been judged" (Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England, 204). Latimore & Haskell, p. 32; Riall p. 87.