The Night Before Christmas

Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Co, [ca. 1904]. Issued at a later date by Winston, but still carrying the Porter & Coates 1883 copyright date; has the same number but lesser quality engravings" (see Marshall, The Night Before Christmas, 151). Octavo (20cm); red cloth binding with pictorial paper-covered boards; 48pp; black and white illustrations throughout. Gift tag with note on front pastedown (and light off-setting to front endpaper), with inked gift inscription (1908) to front flyleaf. Modest shelf-wear and soil, rubbing to board edges, with first gathering of leaves mostly detached with only a few threads intact, light interior wear, and 1.5" tear to lower margin of "So up to the housetop" illustration page; Good.

"The date of circa 1904 for the appearance of this edition is verifiable as the date the John C. Winston Co. purchased the plates and stock from Henry T. Coates & Co. that, in 1895, had taken over the Porter & Coates publishing house" (see Marshall, The Night Before Christmas, 151). This text includes illustrations drawn and engraved by William T. Smedley, Frederic B. Schell, Alfred Fredericks, and Henry R. Poore, under the supervision of James W. Lauderbach. Text first published as "Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas" (1823), and later published as "The Night Before Christmas" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas". MARSHALL 151. [84477]. (Inventory #: 84477)