The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Rendered into English Verse by Edward Fitzgerald. With Illustrations by Edmund Dulac.

KHAYYAM, Omar (1048-1131), [FITZGERALD, Edward, translator], [DULAC, Edmund, illustrator].

London: Hodder and Stoughton, no date [1909]. [Illustrated Metaphysical Poetry] FIRST DULAC TRADE EDITION, text reprinted from Fitzgerald's second edition. Quarto (33 x 24cm), unpaginated. With 20 chromolithographic plates, including a frontispiece, by Edmund Dulac, each with a tissue guard, and brown border decoration (later printings have green border). Elegantly hand-bound in half navy blue calf over matching cloth sides, spine gilt-lettered in six compartments with traditional raised bands, sewn endbands, original decorative cloth and patterned endpapers preserved at rear. Minor spotting to first and final leaves else contents fresh, exterior unmarked. An excellent copy in an attractive recent leather binding. Omar Khayyam was an astronomer and a poet in Persia, born at Naishapur in Khorassan in the middle of the eleventh century. The French artist Dulac, along with contemporaries Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, Harry Clarke and Warwick Goble was a highly regarded book illustrator, noted for his fantasy drawing, prominent during the so called "Golden Age of Illustration" (the first quarter or so of the twentieth century). His other works include The Arabian Nights, Treasure Island, Andersen's Fairy Tales, and works by Shakespeare, Bronte, Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Item #74391

Price: £395.00