Books

First Rackham edition. The illustrations immediately established Rackham as the leading illustrator of lavishly produced gift books in the Edwardian era. In March 1905 the original watercolours were exhibited at Leicester Galleries, attracting the attention of J. M. Barrie, who then commissioned Rackham's next book, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906). Quarto. Original green cloth, titles and pictorial decoration to spine and front board gilt, publisher's device to rear board in blind, dark green endpapers, all edges green. Tipped-in colour frontispiece and 49 plates with printed tissue guards, vignettes to title page and head- and tailpieces in black and white. Neat contemporary gift inscriptions to verso of half title, one tissue guard lightly creased. A lovely copy. Riall, pp. 69-70.

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.