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A Fine Copy. Small folio (9 7/8 x 7 1/16 inches; 250 x 180 mm.). [127], [1, printers mark] pp. Sixteen full-page and four smaller black & white drawings, all with decorative borders. Bound ca, 1942 by Maurin (stamp-signed in gilt on front turn-in). Full dark blue morocco, covers ruled in gilt with a central 'arabesque' design surrounded by four richly gilt decorated corner pieces. Spine with four raised bands, decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt, gilt-ruled board edges, elaborate gilt turn-ins, decorative end-papers, top edge gilt. Fitzgerald attributed the original work to the famed astronomer and mathematician Omar Khayyum, and this collection of quatrains rapidly became a favored text of the Pre-Raphaelites. "Like the Odyssey or the Vita Nuova [it] was once the most widely known and quoted work of Victorian poetry in the world," and its place in Western culture at the time was secured by Fitzgerald's "epigrammatic, sophisticated, often mordant verses [that] display Fitzgerald's adroitness in handling this stanza form" (Warner). Yet with rise of Modernism, the Rubaiyat fell out of style for a time, its lush and romantic orientalism considered out of step with the concerns of those who were living through a devastating World War. But the beautiful surviving copies in exceptional vellum, silk, and leather, alongside recently released critical editions, have helped draw attention back to the Rubaiyat's beauty and its role in inspiring so many monumental pieces of Victorian art and literature. William Andrew ("Willy") Pogany (born Vilmos Andreas Feichtmann) (1882 1955) was a Hungarian illustrator. Pogany s Art Nouveau style is distinct; he incorporated fantastical, mythic, and natural themes into his highly detailed pen and ink drawings and his dream-like watercolors. He was a prolific artist, crafting illustrations for The Rubáiyat of Omar Khayyám, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Tannhäuser and Parsifal, and Lohengrin, among many others. Fine. Seller Inventory # 6419
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