Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Rendered into English verse Edward Fitzgerald.
[London:]: Hodder and Stoughton, [1913]. Tipped-in color frontispiece; twenty-eight tipped-in color illustrations within decorative borders, including nine full-page plates; numerous textual illustrations in blue. Title-page printed in gold, blue, and black. Corners lightly rubbed, slight fraying to tail of spine. Minor offsetting to gutter margin of ff. 7-8. Slight offsetting to tissue guards from plates. A near fine copy. Brown cloth ruled in gilt and stamped decoratively in blue and gilt on front board with gilt spine. Octavo. [2], 58, [1], 59-75 ff. Item #16407
René Bull (1872-1942) was a Dublin-born photographer and illustrator, and one of the artists of the Golden Age of Illustration (from the 1880s to 1920s). While in Paris studying engineering, he met and took drawing lessons from satirist and political cartoonist Caran d’Ache (born Emmanuel Poiré, 1858-1909). When Bull returned to Ireland, he contributed political cartoons and sketches to various publications, including Weekly Freeman. He went to South Africa to document the Boer War, but left after he was wounded in 1900. After settling in England, he continued to draw cartoons for magazines, including Bystander and London Opinion. From 1905 on, he illustrated books, the first of which was Fontaine’s Fables. Other well-known titles he illustrated include Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris and Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. Bull joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and was transferred to the Royal Air Force where he reached the rank of Major. During World War II, he enlisted in the Air Ministry where he performed technical duties.
Price: $950.00