Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. From the Fourth Version of Edward Fitzgerald's Translation ... with Illustrations by Adelaide Hanscom
London, George G. Harrap and Co., 1908/ [1905].
Quarto, unpaginated, but with 43 leaves of text (all versos blank) and numerous blank interleaves plus a colour-decorated leaf (the photographer's acknowledgments, verso blank) and 28 full-page photogravure plates (from photographs by Adelaide Hanscom).
Colour pictorial cloth, leading and bottom edges uncut; covers slightly rubbed at the extremities, with minute wear to a bottom corner tip; inner hinges slightly cracked; endpapers lightly marked; neat contemporary gift inscription; an excellent copy.
The plates are life studies by Adelaide Hanscom (1876-1932), 'using many notable Bay Area literary figures and artists as her models'. Her studio burned down in 1906, along with the negatives. Originally published by Dodge Publishing Company, New York, this book was one of the first photographically illustrated literary works in the USA, and is believed to be the first to feature the male nude.
Item #101555
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