BEAUTIFULLY BOUND AND ILLUSTRATED RUBAIYAT, SIGNED BY POGANY, WITH A SIGNED ORIGINAL ETCHING, IN PUBLISHER’S DELUXE MOROCCO

(POGANY, Willy) KHAYYAM, Omar. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The First and Fourth Renderings in English Verse by Edward Fitzgerald. With Illustrations by Willy Pogany. London: George G. Harrap, (1930). Quarto, publisher's full turquoise crushed morocco, raised bands, decorative gilt and onlaid leather emblem on front cover, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, uncut. $2200.

Signed limited edition, number 116 of only 750 copies printed for England (of a total edition of 1250 copies) signed by the artist, Willy Pogany. Splendidly illustrated, with an original etching signed by Pogany (a variant of the color-plate frontispiece), 12 full-page mounted color plates and numerous black-and-white text illustrations, including dozens of intricate etchings mounted as headpieces. Handsomely bound in the publisher’s deluxe morocco.

Khayyam's "brief verses vary in theme… from sophisticated satires on the unreasonableness of human passion to the passionate lyrics on the joys and sorrows of love and wine and on the wisdom of grasping pleasure while we can" (Hornstein, Percy and Brown 377). Pogany first illustrated the Rubaiyat in 1909. Without scarce cardboard slipcase. Greer 121d.

Only minimal rubbing to boards. A fine copy in original morocco gilt.