top edge gilt, others untrimmed. With 20 colour plates mounted and tipped in, with tissue guards. A fine copy. ¶ Hughey 21. John D. Yohannan, Persian Poetry in England and America , 1977. £3,500 [113617] 16 DURRELL, Lawrence. The Alexandria Quartet. [Comprising:] Justine; Balthazar; Mountolive; Clea. London: Faber and Faber, 1957–60 “art like life is an open secret” First editions, first impressions. Perhaps Durrell’s greatest success, a study of love and political intrigue in Alexandria, Egypt, before and during World War II. 4 volumes, octavo. Finely bound in red, blue, yellow, and red morocco respectively after the designs of the original cloth bindings, gilt lettering on spines on contrasting coloured labels, twin rule to turn-ins, plain blue endpapers, all edges gilt. Housed in a custom red leather entry slipcase. A fine set. £5,000 [121818]
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13 DOYLE, Richard. In Fairyland. A Series of Pictures from the Elf-World. With a Poem by William Allingham. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, & Dyer, 1870 doyle’s masterpiece First edition of one of the masterpieces of Victorian colour printing. Doyle’s illustrations were executed by Edmund Evans, the preeminent wood engraver and colour printer in Britain during the second half of the 19th century. Evans “was the key figure to whom the trio of great illustrators of the end of the century, Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway and Randolph Caldecott, owed recognition, encouragement and brilliant colour reproduction” (Watson). Folio. Finely bound in dark green morocco, spine lettered in gilt, twin rule on covers, gilt pictorial title block on front cover, inner dentelles gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. With 16 coloured wood engraved plates, painted by Doyle, engraved by Edmund Evans. Some mild browning and spotting to leaves, an excellent copy in a fine binding. ¶ Victor Watson, ed., The Cambridge Guide to Children’s Books in English , 2001. £3,750 [130950]
14 DULAC, Edmund (illus.) Lyrics Pathetic & Humorous from A to Z. London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1908 whimsical children’s alphabet First edition of this humorously poetic children’s alphabet book. Each letter has a limerick penned by Dulac below the coloured illustration. Quarto. Finely bound in grey morocco, spine lettered in gilt, multicoloured pictorial onlay on front cover after original cover design, roll on turn-ins, black endpapers, gilt edges. Illustrated with 24 colour plates by Edmund Dulac. A fine copy. £3,250 [66581] 15 DULAC, Edmund (illus.); OMAR KHAYYÁM; Edward FitzGerald (trans.) Rubáiyát. London: Hodder and Stoughton, [1909] " a joy and a treasure" Signed limited edition, number 131 of 750 copies signed by the artist. Edmund Dulac’s illustrations for the Rubáiyát helped to confirm his position as “a direct challenger in the illustrated gift book market to the work of Arthur Rackham” ( ODNB ). FitzGerald’s translation was first published in 1859 and slowly gained recognition as a masterpiece of English literature. By the early 1900s many of his phrases had entered the common stock of English quotations and allusions; a growing “cult of the Rubáiyát ” found expression in “the Omar Khayyám Clubs of England and America” (Yohannan, p. 202). Hughey, in her bibliography of Dulac, records the opinion of the publisher George H. Doran (who published the American edition). Doran stated that “the book was a joy and a treasure. Its public acceptance was immediate and great”. Large quarto. Finely bound in red morocco, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, raised bands, pictorial title block to front board gilt after the original design, twin rule to turn-ins, red and gold diamond patterned endpapers,
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