Oriental Tales : A Series of Seventy Original Illustrations to the Arabian Nights, Painted by Albert Letchford
Boston: Francis A. Niccolls & Co., [c. 1897]. Seventy tipped-in, black and white photogravures by Albert Letchford, with remarques and captioned tissue guards. Edition de Luxe. Bound by Leighton, Son & Hodge in full blue cloth, ornately stamped in gilt, black calf spine label, teg, yellow endpapers. [ii], 8. 9" x 6.5" Moderate wear to extremities, concentrated to corners and tips, rubbing to spine label, tiny tide mark to bottom of front and rear hinges, contemporary owner inscription to ffep, several faintly foxed tissue guards, still near fine. Item #240165
BURTON'S ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATOR
Sir Richard Francis Burton achieved his life goal of publishing an uncensored translation of the Arabian Nights stories, typically stripped of their sexual content in buttoned-up Victorian England, through his publication of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Several years later, H.S. Nichols published a twelve-volume illustrated edition (1897) featuring illustrations by the Burton's family painter, Albert Letchford, who was employed to paint portraits of the family and eventually entrusted to make a cast of Burton's head after his death. Published the same year as the illustrated edition, this American collection of Letchford's seventy Arabian Nights illustrations lushly captures the sensuality of Burton's translation in black and white photogravures.
This scarce deluxe edition is limited to 500 numbered copies, of which this is 376.
Price: $750.00