The Night Before Christmas.

Philadelphia: Porter & Coates,, [c.1883]. An attractive example of a late 19th-century gift book. By 1883, the Santa Claus made famous by Clement Moore's poem had reached his cultural ascendancy and was as much a part of the American Christmas as gift-giving. One contributor to the Lutheran Observer that year griped "this Santa Claus folly has infected... everything almost, at this season". This edition is illustrated by a set of successful artists of the period, whose work often appeared in popular magazines. Schell had also been a Civil War artist. "A Visit from St. Nicholas", which became known by its first line, was first published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel in 1823. Moore later claimed authorship. Small quarto. Original white cloth spine, pictorial bevelled boards decorated and lettered in black with silver highlights and gilt edges, rounded board and book-block corners, edges gilt. Frontispiece, illustrated half-title, engravings throughout from original drawings by William T. Smedley, Frederic B. Schell, Alfred Fredericks, and Henry R. Poore. Christmas gift inscription dated 1893 to front free endpaper. Covers soiled but bright, edges worn, contents clean: a very good copy.