Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Description: Signed limited first edition of this work reproduced in color from the manuscript written and illuminated by Francis Sangorski & George Sutcliffe, number 247 of 550 copies signed by Sangorski and Sutcliffe. Folio, bound in publisher's full vellum, front panel elaborately stamped in gilt in a peacock motif, gilt titles and a floral motif to the spine, brown gilt morocco lettering label, pictorial endleaves. With twelve full-page illustrations inserted throughout. In very good condition. The Rubáiyát is one of the most popular poems of all time. A collection of quatrains composed in the eleventh century by Persian poet and philosopher Omar Khayyám, it was first published in English-language translation by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859. Since then, its melancholy tone and enigmatic philosophy of mourning the painful brevity of life while celebrating what pleasures we may find have made it an inspiration to countless people.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Price: US$2600.00 + shipping
Description: 343 x 258 mm. (13 1/2 x 10"). 2 p.l., 6 pp., [19] leaves, [1], 16, [1] pp., [11] leaves. Translated by Edward FitzGerald. With an introduction by A. C. Benson. Original vellum boards featuring a peacock within an elaborate gilt frame by Sangorski & Sutcliffe (with "Rd. No. 562943" in small letters at foot, indicating the firm's registered design), smooth spine with gilt decoration and maroon morocco label, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. In a later woodgrain slipcase. Numerous decorative initials designed by Alberto Sangorski printed in gold and colors, and 12 COLOR PLATES (including a particularly elaborate title and first page), with illustrations designed by E. Geddes. Printed in red and black. Potter 81; Paas 4120. âBinding with half a dozen small yellow stains, spine lightly soiled, label with a couple small scratches, plates with light speckled gray strip at leaf edges (from printing process?), otherwise quite pleasing--very fresh internally, printed on high quality paper, and in a solid, scarcely worn binding without any of the usual splaying that vellum invites. This is limited edition facsimile of an original manuscript illuminated and written out by Alberto Sangorski and illustrated by Ewan Geddes, based on FitzGerald's enduringly popular translation of Omar Khayyam. It is a very attractive and well-preserved facsimile of the fine work produced by Sangorski & Sutcliffe when the firm was at the top of their game. After studying under, and then working for, Douglas Cockerell, Francis Sangorski and George Sutcliffe founded their own bindery in 1901 and continued in a successful partnership until 1912. During that year, the firm suffered three major blows: their famously splendid jewelled binding, dubbed the "Great Omar," was lost on the Titanic; a few weeks after this accident, Francis himself drowned; and Francis' brother, Alberto, who had been a central figure in producing the firm's vellum illuminated manuscripts, went over to Riviere. Despite these losses, the firm grew and prospered, employing a staff of 80 by the mid-1920s and becoming perhaps the most successful English bindery of the 20th century. Though he was best known for his watercolor scenes of rural and winter landscapes, Scottish artist Ewan Geddes (1866-1935) abandons his usual restrained palette in this collaboration with Sangorski & Sutcliffe, employing instead a colorful array of paints that capture the warmth and sensuous lyricism of the text. No. 154 OF 550 COPIES printed on handmade paper and SIGNED BY SANGORSKI AND SUTCLIFFE on the limitations page.
Seller: Phillip J. Pirages Rare Books (ABAA), McMinnville, OR, U.S.A.
Price: US$2950.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Bound in full vellum boards with lovely full gilt peacock design to the front board. Brown morocco spine label intact. A lovely, Near Fine example of this limited production, number 133 of 550 copies produced. This edition reprints the famous Sangorski and Sutcliffe, illuminated edition, with both Sangorski and Sutcliffe signing on the limitation page. Complete with all 12 color plates. Very slight bowing to the boards and a bit of foxing throughout. Fitzgerald attributed the original work to the famed astronomer and mathematician Omar Khayyum, and this collection of quatrains rapidly became a favored text of the Pre-Raphaelites. "Like the Odyssey or the Vita Nuova [it] was once the most widely known and quoted work of Victorian poetry in the world," and its place in Western culture at the time was secured by Fitzgerald's "epigrammatic, sophisticated, often mordant verses [that] display Fitzgerald's adroitness in handling this stanza form" (Warner). Yet with rise of Modernism, the Rubaiyat fell out of style for a time, its lush and romantic orientalism considered out of step with the concerns of those who were living through a devastating World War. But the beautiful surviving copies in exceptional vellum, silk, and leather, alongside recently released critical editions, have helped draw attention back to the Rubaiyat's beauty and its role in inspiring so many monumental pieces of Victorian art and literature. Near Fine.
Seller: Whitmore Rare Books, Inc. -- ABAA, ILAB, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.