Rip Van Winkle (text by Washington Irving)

Heinemann reprinted this title repeatedly after 1905; later printings commonly REDUCE the plate count (the full first-issue complement is the frontispiece plus 50 = 51 mounted colour plates) and may substitute cheaper binding, so a genuine first must show all 51 mounted plates with their tissue guards, the correct issue binding (green pictorial cloth with all edges green for the trade issue; full vellum gilt for the limited), and an 1905 title/verso with no later date or 'reprinted/new impression' statement. The signed limited must carry the numbered limitation leaf (within 250) and Rackham's autograph. Later and cheaper Heinemann/US reprints and a smaller-format edition circulate; foxing to the plate mounts and tissue guards is near-universal and is NOT in itself a later-printing tell.