Beschreibung:

Beardsley (Aubrey).- Malory (Sir Thomas) [Le Morte Darthur] The Birth, Life and Acts of King Arthur, 2 vol. in the original 12 parts, number 101 of 300 deluxe copies on Dutch handmade paper, from an edition limited to 1800, printed in red and black, 2 photogravure frontispieces, plates, illustrations and decorations by Aubrey Beardsley, with Directions to Binder leaf and note to Subscribers leaf tipped in at beginning of part XII, a little browned with offsetting, an excellent set in the original pictorial blue-grey wrappers, uncut and unopened, preserved in 2 cloth drop-front boxes with catches and roan backstrips, rubbed, lid of one box detached, the other with joint worn and split, [Lasner 22], 1893-94 § Beardsley (Aubrey) [Morte Darthur Portfolio] Reproductions of Eleven Designs omitted from the First Edition...illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley..., number 120 of 300 copies, light offsetting, original tan calf-backed pictorial vellum, gilt, designed by Beardsley, t.e.g., others uncut, upper cover slightly soiled and warped, upper joint split, spine chipped at head, 1927, 4to (3) ⁂ Beardsley's first major commission and an early masterpiece, produced when he was only 20 years old. The young artist met the publisher J.M. Dent who was looking for someone to illustrate an edition of Morte d'Arthur. On seeing Beardsley's trial drawing 'The Achieving of the Sangreal' the publisher was reputedly rendered speechless by its quality. Duly commissioned, Beardsley produced a body of work which took the medievalism of the Pre-Raphaelites and married it to his own bizarre imagination and Japanese-influenced style, making his reputation. They are among the most stunning illustrations he ever produced. The binding of the second item reproduces Beardsley's design for the publisher's deluxe binding of the first item.