RUBAIYÁT OF OMAR KHAYYÁM. THE ASTRONOMER-POET OF PERSIA. RENDERED INTO ENGLISH VERSE.

$2,750 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

RUBAIYÁT OF OMAR KHAYYÁM. THE ASTRONOMER-POET OF PERSIA. RENDERED INTO ENGLISH VERSE. First Grolier Club edition. From an edition limited to 150 copies printed on Japan paper, this is number 132. The wrappers and text ornaments are reproduced in beautiful chromolithography from illustrations by George and William Audsley and Owen Jones.The Scottish Audsley brothers worked as architects and designers from the 1860s, completing several churches in the Gothic revival style in Liverpool and publishing books on ornaments and Japanese art. The design of the wrappers is taken from their Outlines of Ornament (1881), where it appears under the name of "Persian B, diaper ornament."The headpieces come from examples in Owen Jones' Grammar of Ornament (1856). Among the most influential design and colour theorists of the 19th century, Jones was a pivotal figure in the formation of the South Kensington Museum (later Victoria and Albert Museum) and is famous for his studies of Islamic decoration. In 1929, Ambrose George Potter noted in his Rubaiyát bibliography that this edition was "now difficult to secure, even at very high price." Two additional copies were printed on vellum.

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.