SIGNED LIMITED EDITION OF RACKHAM'S THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

(RACKHAM, Arthur) 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, top edge gilt, uncut. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $4500.

Signed limited first edition, number 230 of only 275 copies printed for America (out of a total edition of 550 copies), with four color plates and 17 in-text line cuts, signed by Arthur Rackham.

"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 color illustrations, 17 drawings in black and white, and red and white pictorial endpapers. Title page printed in red and black. Without original glassine and cardboard slipcase. Riall, 174. Latimore & Haskell, 66.

Interior fine, minimal soiling to original vellum. A lovely copy.