Malory | The birth life and acts of King Arthur, London, 1893-1894, illustrated by Beardsley, 2 volumes

Sir Thomas Malory

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... embellished with many original designs by Aubrey Beardsley. London: Dent (Edinburgh: Turnbull & Spears, 30 November) 1893-(12 November) 1894

2 volumes, 8vo (236 x 181mm.), one of 1500 ordinary copies, half-titles, 2 photogravure frontispieces, woodcut initials, borders, head- and tailpieces, 18 woodcut plates (of which 4 double-page), contemporary half burgundy morocco, top edges gilt, others untrimmed, endpapers lightly foxed, occasional light offsetting, joints rubbed 

This edition of the Morte d'Arthur was a significant work in the career of Aubrey Beardsley. It was his first commission at the age of 20 for a series of illustrations inspired by the productions of William Morris's Kelmscott Press (see various entries in this catalogue; Morris never printed this work). The text is a modernised spelling of Caxton's edition from 1485.

LITERATURE:

The Artist and the Book 16

PROVENANCE:

John W. Waterer, bookplates