[RUBAIYAT]. [VEDDER, Elihu (1836–1923), illustrator]. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: The Astronomer–Poet of Persia. Translated by Edward Fitzgerald (1809–1883). Boston: [Riverside Press for] Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1884.
Large folio (432 x 381 mm). Letterpress index and notes at rear, 57 Art–Nouveau illustrated leaves reproduced by the Albertype process after drawings by Elihu Vedder on Japanese paper each with remarque, mounted on heavy wove paper as issued. Original full thick brown morocco gilt, decorated after a design by Vedder, gilt–lettered and decorated spine, all edges gilt, broad gilt dentelle turn–ins, floral silk doublures and free endpapers, STAMP–SIGNED BY RIVERSIDE PRESS (dark spot on upper cover, few small touch–ups along edges, silk endpapers reinforced at fore–edges).
LIMITED EDITION, DELUXE ISSUE, number 71 of 100 copies SIGNED BY VEDDER on limitation.
Vedder’s arrangement of the Rubaiyat is the most celebrated of all manifestations of the Fitzgerald translation first translated into English from the Persian in 1859. The deluxe edition sold out within six days of production and later editions were then printed in smaller formats and used a half–tone process making this the only edition with Vedder’s fine renderings. Vedder's rearrangement of the stanzas fall into three sections—joy, death, and rebirth—signifying the cycle of life, death and renewal. Vedder also channels this conception into his art, which combines Christian and Classical figures with mystical imagery, like the “cosmic swirl,” which he describes as “gradual concentration of elements that combine to form life; the sudden pause through the reverse of the movement which marks the instant of life; and then the gradual, ever–widening dispersion again of those elements into space.”
This edition was also produced from the same text block that was used in Sangorski and Sutcliffe’s legendary (but tragic) jeweled binding, “The Great Omar”, that was bound for America aboard the Titanic which was lost at sea in 1912. Potter 201.