Rip Van Winkle

Quarto. x, 69, [3]. 11" x 9". Text in French. SIGNED RACKHAM, ONE OF TWENTY COPIES In Rip's gnarled face, the delicate fairies' trailing wings, and the eerie gentlemen playing ninepins, Arthur Rackham's Rip Van Winkle displays the breadth of his artistic skills. First published by William Heinemann in 1905, Rip Van Winkle catapulted Rackham into fame, establishing his longstanding relationship with the publisher as well as Ernest Brown and Walter Phillips, the owners of the Leicester Gardens. After the wildly successful 1905 presentation of his illustrations at the gallery, Phillips and Brown were so impressed with the mingled elegance and grotesqueness of Rackham's illustrations that they referred him to illustrate Heinemann's Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, the work that would solidify his position as the great of Golden Age illustration. Not only did Rip Van Winkle launch Rackham into publishing success with Heinemann, but the book also established his international presence. Published in Paris by Hachette et Cie the year after the London first edition, this luxurious limited edition signed by Rackham was limited to just twenty copies, printed on Japon paper. His images make up the second half of the book, allowing readers to enjoy the story twice, once in its French text and again with Rackham's haunting illustrations in this truly scarce edition with its original vellum wraps bound in. Limited to 20 numbered copies signed by the artist, of which this is 15. Signed by Rackham on the limitation page. [Unnacounted for in Lattimore & Haskell, p. 26 for unsigned French edition, limited to 200 copies]. Gently rubbed boards and extremities, slight rippling to pages, owner bookplate to front pastedown, mild foxing to binder's blanks and tissue guards, still near fine. Overall a square and internally clean copy. Bound in half crushed red morocco over marbled paper boards, spine title stamped in gilt, marbled endpapers, with publisher's limp vellum wraps bound in, printed on Japon paper. …