"COME, FILL THE CUP": THE RUBÁIYÁT OF OMAR KHAYYAM, FINELY BOUND

(FITZGERALD, Edward) KHAYYAM, Omar. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. London: George G. Harrap, (1940). Small octavo, contemporary three-quarter red morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, uncut. $1400.

A splendid Rubaiyat, illustrated with four plates by Stephen Gooden and handsomely bound by Zaehnsdorf.

"The favorite gift book of Edwardian times probably was Edward FitzGerald's rendering of The Rubaiyat" (Hodnett, 226). Composed in 12th-century Persia and rendered into English by Edward FitzGerald (his first version appeared in 1859), these stanzas express "the desire to snatch the utmost of pleasurable sensation from the irretrievable passing moment… [but also] more sober thoughts of the Power that has created beauty and in man a capacity to appreciate beauty but has cursed him with transience… In words and cadences of haunting loveliness a desolating message was communicated to numberless hearts" (Baugh, et al., 1417-18). Illustrator Stephen Gooden "began engraving in 1923 at a time when burin work was less regarded than etching, and soon proved that line-engraving, based on the technique of the great 17th- and 18th-century craftsmen, was still capable of exquisite refinement and expressiveness. He made a series of illustrations in line-engraving, chiefly for the Nonesuch Press, but he also illustrated books for Heinemann and Harrap. His work may be seen at the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford" (DNB).

Fine condition.