SIGNED LIMITED EDITION OF RACKHAM'S THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

MOORE, Clement C. The Night Before Christmas. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. London: George C. Harrap, (1931). Octavo, original gilt-stamped limp vellum, red and white pictorial endpapers, uncut, top edge gilt, original cardboard slipcase with printed paper spine label. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $4600.

Signed limited first edition, number 31 of only 275 copies printed for England (out of a total edition of 550 copies), with four color plates and 17 in-text line cuts, signed by Arthur Rackham, in publisher's vellum.

"One of the world's most widely read poems… 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' recast St. Nicholas as a cheerful, rosy-cheeked elf and established Christmas as a time for giving gifts to children" (Carnegie Mellon University). For this edition of the Yuletide classic, Rackham created four full-color illustrations, 17 drawings in black and white, and red and white pictorial endpapers. Title page printed in red and black. Without plain wrapper. Riall, 174. Latimore & Haskell, 66.

A fine copy in a slipcase with expert repairs.