Fine Books & Manuscripts

BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (1872–1898), illustrator. –– MALORY, Thomas, sir (1415–1471). [Le Morte d’Arthur]. The Birth, Life and Acts of King Arthur of his Noble Knights of the Round Table… [New York: E. P. Dutton and Company], 1927. 4to. Half–title, 22 full–page and double–page plates including frontispiece, numerous decorated woodcut chapter borders, initials, head– and tail–pieces, and woodcut illustrations in text by Beardsley (minor offsetting from frontispiece to title). Publisher’s dark blue cloth pictorially stamped in gilt, top edge gilt, others uncut (rebacked with original spine laid down (possibly a variant spine with London imprint at foot), renewed endpapers, light marginal toning). Third Beardsley edition, LIMITED TO 1600 COPIES, and the first to include the 11 omitted designs by Beardsley from the 1893 edition. From the private library of a prominent Chicago collector, part II.