Malory (Sir Thomas) & Beardsley (Aubrey, illustrator), L...

Malory (Sir Thomas) & Beardsley (Aubrey, illustrator), Le Morte d'Arthur, second edition thus, one of 1,500 copies, London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1909, half-title, photogravure frontispiece, full compliment of full and double-page mixed media plates, further in-text illustrations, decorative head- and tail-pieces, with foliated initials, a particularly bright, clean copy, stable gutter split at first quire, somewhat loose but holding, endpapers a trifle toned, with one or two small spots, original publisher's green cloth, pictorial gilt, top edge gilt, others uncut, 4to Beardsley's first significant work, this intricately illustrated edition of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, presented in a facsimile format of Caxton's 1485 typographic classic. Beardsley's illustrations are all rendered in his distinctive "fin de siècle" style, marking a turning point from the Aesthetic Movement to Art Nouveau. This second edition includes 18 drawings that were not present in the original 1893-94 edition.

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