Malory, Thomas.

Morte D'Arthur-The Birth Life and Acts of King Arthur of His Noble Knights of the Round Table Their Marvelous Endquests and Adventures The Achieving of the San Grael and in The End. Le' Morte D'arthur With the Dolourous Death and Departing Out of This World of Them All. The Text As Written By Sir Thomas Malory and Imprinted By William Caxton At Westminster The Year MCCCCLXXXV and Now Spelled in Modern Style. With an Introduction by Professor Rhys and Embellished With Many Original Designs By Aubrey Beardsley.

London. J.M. Dent. 1893-1894. The First Edition. This copy in number 96 of only 300 copies of the "Superior Issue" printed upon Dutch hand-made paper, with gravure Frontispieces mounted upon India paper and full page plates. Illustrated with 16 full page and 4 double page wood engravings and further decorations including elaborate chapter headings, Rubrications, page borders and vignettes throughout by Aubrey Beardsley. 3 Volumes, complete as issued. Thick 4to. 8.0" x 10.5". Bound in gilt ruled 3/4 crushed grain morocco and marbled boards. Gilt ruled spine compartments with ornate gilt tooled lotus flowers. Gilt tooled raised bands. Gilt titles. Marbled endsheets. Top edge gilded. Original imprinted wrappers bound in to rear of each volume.

Widely recognized as an icon of Art Nouveau book design as well as Beardsley's masterwork. According to Bob Speel, "The final volume is comparable in size to Morris's Kelmscott Chaucer's text, Beardsley's illustrations to Le Morte d'Arthur are a mix of knights, and fauns, swans, fantasy figures, with only some few larger illustrations directly fitting the stories. There is much of Beardsley's style owing to Burne-Jones though, in the draperies, the armour, and the arts and crafts borders and vegetation. But there are also the more sinuous art nouveau forms, the Japanese-style compositions with massed black and white, the cruel faces and gestures that were to feature more prominently thereafter. As Walter Crane noted, "the strong medieval decorative feeling of Morris is mixed with a curious, weird Japanese-like spirit of diablerie and grotesque, as of an opium dream. Noted in A Twentieth Century Book, "If [Beardsley] had never illustrated another book, this Edition of Morte D'Arthur could stand as a monument of decorative book illustration.".



Spines very lightly rubbed and sunned. Several light chips to Headpieces of 2 volumes. Several corners gently rubbed. Light foxing to Prelims. Light to moderate sporadic offset throughout which presents in an often decorative effect to many pates, more prevalent to double page plates. An extremely crisp bright copy of this extraordinarily rare work.

Item #8652