The trees and the axe

A day of almost continuous rain and high winds. Being confined indoors meant that I made some progress with sanding down the metal garden bench and did a bit more work turning the storeroom into a printing zone. One of the books I re-discovered was this 1912 first edition of Aesop's Fables signed by the illustrator Arthur Rackham. Its a very precious item, printed on handmade paper and bound in buckram with gilt titles. There are 13 colour plates (and more than fifty black and white drawings) by Arthur Rackham. My blip shows the book open at the illustration for the Trees and the Axe, perhaps an apt fable for today's troubled times.