[Morte D’Arthur]. The Birth Life and Acts of King Arthur of His Noble Knights of the Round Table Their Marvellous Enquests and Adventures the Achieving of the San Greal and in the End Le Morte Darthur with the Dolourous Death and Departing Out of This World of Them All.

BEARDSLEY, Aubrey; Sir Thomas Malory; William Caxton; John Rhys; Aymer Vallance.

$1,250.00

Item Number: 146914

Edinburgh: Turnbull & Spears, 1927.

Limited Beardsley illustrated edition of perhaps the best-known work of Arthurian literature in English, containing two additional illustrations not appearing in the second edition, in addition to the 10 further illustrations published in the second edition that did not appear in the first. Quarto, original publisher’s cloth with gilt art-deco botanical design by Aubrey Beardsley, some pages uncut, top edge gilt, illustrated with twenty-two plates by Beardsley, numerous in-text designs, and head- and tail-pieces throughout. One of one thousand six hundred examples. In very good condition.

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was an English illustrator and author whose black ink drawings were influenced by Japanese woodcuts, and depicted the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James McNeill Whistler. He is considered one of the important Modern Style figures for his significant contribution to the development of the Art Nouveau and poster styles. His very first commission was for J. M. Dent and Company, illustrating Thomas Malory's 'Le Morte d'Arthur.'