Books

First edition in Dutch. Deluxe edition, 1 of 325 copies. Tall squarish 4to., full brown leather stamped in gilt, with a large pictorial paper panel on the upper cover, (97)pp. With 50 colour illustrations by Rackham. Some scattered and minor foxing, offsetting from the border of the illustrations onto the facing pages, lacking the ties but in fact a near fine copy.

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.