Books

London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1905. Original publisher's full vellum, gilt stamped title and vignette, top edge gilt, others untrimmed, housed in felt-lined slipcase, (11.25 x 9.25 inches). Deluxe Limited Edition, one of only 250 copies SIGNED by Arthur Rackham on limitation page. viii, 57, pages; illustrated by color frontispiece and 49 color plates mounted on brown paper with captioned tissue guards, b&w illustrations in the text, all by Rackham. The first (and now scarciest) book illustrated by Rackham to be issued in the signed limited edition format, later titles had much larger printings. Boards are clean and bright, with only minor expected bowing, some typical light spotting to endpages (interior text and all plates are clean and bright), silk-ties detached but present, slipcase shows wear. An honest, unsophisticated (i.e., unrestored) copy for the sophisticated collector.. Signed. Limited Edition. Vellum. Very Good. Illus. by Arthur Rackham. Quarto.

Rip Van Winkle is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, published in 1819 as part of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. The story is set in New York's Catskill Mountains and follows Rip Van Winkle, a Dutch American villager who falls asleep before the American Revolution and wakes up twenty years later to a very different world. His disappearance and return are met with incredulity by those around him. This tale is known for its themes of change and continuity, the American past, and individualism.