Arthur. Aubrey Beardsley.

by SYMONS

£650 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

The ‘Diabolic Beauty’ of Beardsley’ SYMONS, Arthur. Aubrey Beardsley. London: Unicorn Press . 1898. 4to. Publisher’s cream cloth-backed boards with dark grey-brown paper sides, spine and upper board lettered in gilt; offsetting to half-title; pp. 32, [33–56], with half-title; 3 portrait plates and 6 plates after drawings by Beardsley (of which one in colour) included in pagination; spine somewhat soiled, a few scuffs to boards, some wear to corners and extremities; a very good copy; undated autograph letter from Symons (addressed ‘Dear Sirs’) on notecard adhered on left-hand side to front free endpaper, gift inscription to ‘J.S. Cotton’ dated 20 April 1899, bookplate of Albert Louis Cotton to front pastedown; three early booksellers’ catalogue clippings to front pastedown (a fourth loosely inserted). First edition in book form of this monograph on Beardsley by Arthur Symons, founding editor of The Savoy , including for the first time Beardsley’s drawings ‘Le Débris d’un Poète’ and ‘The Mirror of Love’, this copy with an apologetic autograph note by Symons. Arthur Symons (1865–1945) produced The Savoy with Beardsley as art director and Leonard Smithers as publisher. Beardsley had been ‘recently fired from the Yellow Book at the time of the Oscar Wilde trials because of his daring illustrations for Salomé . Designed to surpass the Yellow Book as the principal avant-garde periodical of the 1890s, the first issue of The Savoy appeared in January 1896. With its eighth number in De

• Binding: Hardcover

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