Robertson, W. Graham

Ink and watercolor drawing (8 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.; 210 x 140 mm), of an anthropomorphized Wind goddess flying through willows at the edge of a lake, in light and dark green with yellow flowers, lettered title and author's name. Matted, glazed and framed.

Sotheby's, 10 November 1998, lot 97 (unnamed consignor)

see cataloguing
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When The Wind in the Willows was originally published in 1908, the only illustration it had was a frontispiece by Graham Robertson depicting Pan in the reeds playing pipes, with rat and mole in a rowing boat in the foreground. This lot is apparently a trial illustration probably for a dust-jacket (as the forms would not well translate into the gold-stamping that was used for the cover). It is not known whether Graham Robertson designed this, but it is certainly more in keeping with the original proposed title for the book, The Wind in the Reeds. When the title was changed at the last minute (because Robertson pointed out the title's similarity to one of Yeats' poems "The Wind among the Reeds"), Robertson was probably asked to supply an alternative design that was not used.

Apparently unrecorded and not reproduced anywhere.