Thomas, Sir ; Aubrey BEARDSLEY ( illustrator ). [Le Morte Darthur.] The Birth, Life and Acts of King Arthur, of his Noble Knights of the Round Table.

by MALORY

£18,750 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

In the Original Wrappers MALORY, Thomas, Sir ; Aubrey BEARDSLEY ( illustrator ). [Le Morte Darthur.] The Birth, Life and Acts of King Arthur, of his Noble Knights of the Round Table. [Edinburgh: Turnbull Spears for] London: J. M. Dent. June 1893–November 1894. Twelve vols, 4to. Publisher’s pale grey wrappers, front cover design by Aubrey Beardsley and printed advertisements to rear wrappers, uncut and largely unopened; pp. 990, [2 (colophon, blank)], [4], viii, xc (pp. i–lxv and first frontispiece bound at end of Part VI); 2 photogravure frontispieces and 18 wood-engraved plates by Beardsley (of which 5 double-page, with tissue guards); printed on handmade Van Gelder paper, numerous in-text wood-engraved chapter headings, initials, and borders by Beardsley, printer’s devices to titles and 22 14- and 16-line initials by Beardsley printed in red; variable browning and light spotting to plates with resultant light offsetting to text, else internally very good; an excellent set, housed in two contemporary cloth drop-front boxes (lightly scuffed) with catches and roan spines. First edition of Beardsley’s groundbreaking illustrations to Malory’s Morte D’Arthur, no. 101 of 300 ‘superior’-issue sets printed on handmade Van Gelder paper, exceptionally well-preserved, largely unopened, and extremely rare in the original wrappers. ‘The Morte d’Arthur is the most famous version and the first in English prose of all the legends which have collected about King Arthur. It is the only true E

• Binding: Hardcover

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