Watership Down (deluxe edition with original signed watercolour)

London : Paradine, 1976. Octavo, full crushed levant morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, spine in compartments with gilt-illustrations and vignette to front board, light sunning to spine, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, 550 pp., numerous colour and black and white illustrations and folding colour map at rear, a fine copy, housed in the publisher’s marbled slipcase. Limited to 250 copies signed by Richard Adams. A fine deluxe edition of this modern classic, issued four years after the 1972 first edition, of which 2500 copies were printed.

Finely printed and bound in an edition of 250 signed copies, this is one of an estimated 30 copies containing an original watercolour illustration by John Lawrence on a preliminary blank. The watercolour features the rabbits in a field, and is initialed in black ink, “J. L.”.

Watership Down was the author’s first novel. It was rejected by thirteen publishers before being accepted for publication by Rex Collings in 1972. Watership Down has become one of the most beloved works in children’s literature. It has never been out of print, and remains the best-selling book ever published by Penguin in the United States.