I have been in the rare and antiquarian book business for over forty years; my family has been in the rare books business since 1876. Rare books are in my blood.
Complete Works of Gaius Petronius, The
London: Fanfrolico Press, 1927. Item #06434
The Fanfrolico Petronius — Norman Lindsay’s Celebrated Erotic Cycle
In a Finely Bound Copy by Cuneo
[FANFROLICO PRESS]. PETRONIUS ARBITER. The Complete Works of Gaius Petronius. Done into English by Jack Lindsay. With One Hundred Illustrations by Norman Lindsay. Comprising The Satyricon and Poems. Privately printed for sale to subscribers only. London: Fanfrolico Press, [n.d., 1927].
Limited to 650 copies (this copy being No. 206), numbered and signed by the translator, Jack Lindsay.
Folio (11 15/16 x 9 inches; 303 x 228 mm.). [2, blank], viii, 151, [1, blank] pp. With 100 collotype plates by Norman Lindsay, finely reproduced and arranged in groups of ten, each group preceded by a printed list of plates. The plates, among the most ambitious and provocative of Lindsay’s career, form a continuous visual interpretation of the Satyricon, rendered with his characteristic blend of classical fantasy, sensuality, and wit.
Handsomely bound by Cuneo (stamp-signed in gilt on the front turn-in) in half red morocco over marbled boards. Spine with raised bands, compartments richly tooled and lettered in gilt, one compartment with a striking onlaid panel in olive and black morocco pictorially tooled in gilt after a detail from the final plate, “On the Road.” All edges gilt, marbled endpapers. A near fine copy, with only minimal rubbing to the upper joint.
One of the most celebrated productions of the Fanfrolico Press, the private press founded by Jack and Norman Lindsay, whose publications combined fine printing with an unapologetically libertine artistic vision. Their edition of Petronius - issued strictly for subscribers - stands as a landmark of twentieth-century private press erotica, marrying classical text with a boldly modern graphic imagination.
Norman Lindsay’s illustrations, here reproduced in rich collotype, rank among his most important sustained works, drawing on the decadence and vitality of ancient Rome while infusing it with the distinctive energy and irreverence that define his art.
A striking and desirable copy, further distinguished by an elaborate and highly appropriate decorative binding by Cuneo.
Ransom, Private Presses, p. 272, no. 5.
Price: $1,250.00