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.
Stories from The Arabian Nights
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1907. Item #06652
DULAC at His Breakthrough - The Immediate Second Issue of His Masterpiece
DULAC, Edmund, illustrator. Laurence Housman. Stories from The Arabian Nights. With Drawings by Edmund Dulac. London: Hodder and Stoughton, [November, 1907].
Second trade edition, issued just one month after the first edition of October 1907, printed to meet the extraordinary demand generated by Dulac’s landmark exhibition at the Leicester Galleries.
Octavo (9 1/2 x 7 inches; 241 x 178 mm.). xvi, 133, [3] pp. Color frontispiece and forty-nine mounted color plates, each on gray stock with captioned tissue guards, bound at rear as issued.
Bound ca. 1980 in full brown morocco, covers elaborately gilt with an overall floral design, spine with five raised bands, richly ruled and lettered in gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers, all edges stained dark green. Spine very slightly mellowed, otherwise a fine and handsome copy in an attractive, though unsigned, binding.
Dulac’s Arabian Nights is widely regarded as his first great book and the foundation of his reputation. The initial October 1907 printing sold out immediately, prompting this November issue to coincide with the Leicester Galleries exhibition - an event that secured Dulac’s long-standing relationship with both the gallery and Hodder & Stoughton, who would thereafter issue his illustrated gift books annually.
As Hughey notes: “The first printing…was so sought after that a second printing had to be run… This exhibit started Dulac’s lengthy relationship with the Leicester Galleries and… solidified his reputation as an illustrator.”
Reference: Hughey 16b.
Price: $750.00