Two Classic Book Titles, One Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. 

This lot consists of two books, one by Lewis Carroll and the other by Adam Smith. The first title is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, it measures 8 by 6 without the slipcase, and the book and slipcase are in great condition. The book has five slightly raised bands on the spine, with gilt lettering and gilt decorations on the spine, gilt rules and a gilt image of a rabbit on the front cover, marbled endpapers, an image of Alice by Arthur Rackham on the frontis, with a tissue guard to protect the title page, the title page says the book was illustrated by Arthur Rackham and published in London by William Heinemann. The copyright page says the first edition was published in 1907, and this copy was published in 1966. It has a Contents page, a List of the Plates, the text is 162 pages long, all the edges are gilt, and Arthur Rackham was one of the most important illustrators of the early 1900s. The only only blemish we could find on the book was a small nick above the black label on the spine with Rackham’s name on it, and the nick does not touch Rackham’s name. 

The second book in this lot is Adam Smith’s An Inquiry Into The Nature And Causes Of The Wealth Of Nations, usually referred to as The Wealth of Nations. Smith (1723 - 1790) was a Scottish economist who was a key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment, he was called the “father of economics “ and the “father of capitalism”, and his work was a departure from the prevailing economic theory that national markets could be protected by reducing imports and expanding exports - i.e, mercantilism - and his view of economics was based on the idea of free markets. 

The book was originally published in 1776, and this book was published by George Routledge and Sons in 1893. The book is 3/4 bound, with five raised bands and gilt lettering and gilt decorations on the spine, marbled boards and marbled endpapers, a note on a blank endpaper in front says the book was given as a shooting prize in June 1893, the half-title  precedes a page of ads for books published by Routledge, then the title page, a one-page bio of Adam Smith, twelve pages (ii - Xiii) by Dugald Stuart about the book, three pages of Contents (xiv - xvi), 760 pages of text, an index that runs to page 780, and all the edges are marbled. The book measures 7 7/8 x 6 inches wide and is in very good condition, with a tight binding and clean pages and text, and the only blemishes we could find were faint brown spots on the blank endpaper in front saying the book was an award for a shooting prize and some light rubbing on the edges the spine. `        

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