Signed and dated 1907, ‘The Queen turned angrily away from him and said to the Knave, “Turn them over”’ is the original for one of the illustrations made by Rackham for a Heinemann edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
At the time a number of other publishers were also getting ready for the moment when copyright on the book expired in 1907.
Previously sold at Sotheby’s for £24,000, in 2004, it this time reached £35,000.
A group of 49 copper-plated lead printing blocks produced for Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, electrotyped from the wooden blocks cut by the Dalziel brothers after Tenniel’s original drawings and used in the legendary first and other early editions, were offered in a Christie’s sale of December 1. However, this lot failed to sell against an estimate of £35,000-40,000.
In 2001 the blocks had sold in the same rooms for £26,000.
