"SCHEHEREZADE HERSELF MUST HAVE APPEARED TO EDMUND DULAC"
(DULAC, Edmund, illustrator). Stories from The Arabian Nights. Retold by Laurence Housman. London, New York and Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, (1911). Octavo, publisher's original full brown morocco gilt, top edge gilt. $1600.
Early trade edition, in publisher's deluxe binding, with 24 color plates by Edmund Dulac—"an illustrator of first rank, a master of the fantastic and exotic and 'a dreamer of extraordinary dreams'" (Dalby, 82-83).
"Scheherezade herself must have appeared to Edmund Dulac. In a dream, perhaps, in which she kissed his eyelids. Where else could he have learned to see the things he saw? Faraway places. Exotic peoples. The mirages of domed and minareted cities. How else could he have known the look of an Eastern paradise? The curl of the last tendril blossoming in an Arab courtyard? The tilt of a crescent moon? And he did seem to know. Whole generations saw his paintings and agreed, 'Yes, this is what the East must be like— and dreamt of it themselves" (Rebecca Bruns, "Arabian Nights—and Art Nouveau"). Dulac's Arabian Nights exemplifies the "gift book" genre so popular during Christmas seasons of the early 20th century. "The 'gift' book was really something for a child to receive. They were heavy and thick, with beautifully blocked covers, ornamental headbands and colored endpapers. Inside there would be color plates, tipped-on to cartridge mounts and protected with tissue. These books were precious objects, to be looked at with awe and handled with care" (Lewis, 186). "Dulac remained true to the medium of watercolor, and the critics were unanimous in their praise. He was recognized as an illustrator of first rank, a master of the fantastic and exotic, and 'a dreamer of extraordinary dreams" (Dalby, 82-83). First issued in 1907 in limited and trade editions with 50 plates. Hughey 16l. Early gift inscription.
Plates fine, very infrequent light foxing to text; binding a bit bowed with one small rub on the back, gilt bright. A charming volume.