As usual this is a big show - more than 700 works, ranging in price from a modest £75 for Henry Stacy Marks' (1829-1898) Nestling Dove, to £150,000 for Arthur Rackham's (1867-1939) fine The Fairies are Exquisite Dancers, which, incidentally, was one of the early items to find a buyer.
Remarkably, this event, which runs through to January 7, offers 24 images by Rackham, a number of the most costly proving highly sought after.
These include Hey! Up the Chimney, Lass! Hey after You! (£65,000); They were ruled by an Old Squaw Spirit who hung up the new moons in the skies and cut up the old ones into stars (£37,000) and The Old Man of the Sea (£17,500).
There were some strong prices also for original illustrations at Christie's South Kensington on December 1.
Based upon the estimates, most spectacular were the sums paid for a large group of ink and watercolour images by Miss Emma Florence Harrison, whose detailed drawings are influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, William Morris and the Art Nouveau style.
Little is known of her life other than that she was working in London between 1877 and 1925 and that she specialised in illustrating poetry and children's books.
From the collection of James W Murray, who was art editor and design manager of the Glasgow book publishers Blackie & Son, the 351 illustrations were offered in 10 lots, with Christie's top expectations totalling £14,300.
Given that this worked out at little more than £40 each, it was fairly evident that bidding would be strong. And so it was. The whole collection brought a more realistic £110,000 (£131,449 with buyer's premium). The highest price per picture (£1545, plus premium) was £17,000 (£20,315 with premium) for 11 illustrations used for the 1912 edition of the artist's own book, Elfin Song.
Looking well ahead, the South Kensington salerooms are to offer on June 29, 2005, colourful watercolours from The Noddy Archives, including 'I didn't steal the cars, I didn't, I didn't, cried Noddy (estimated at £5000-7000), by the Dutch illustrator Harmsen van der Beek (1897-1953).
