Rubáiyát. The First and Fourth Renderings in English Verse by Edward Fitzgerald. OMAR KHAYYÁM; POGÁNY, Willy (illus.).

Signed limited edition, British issue, number 596 of 750 copies signed by the artist, specially bound, and with an original etching also signed by Pogány. Pogány's illustrated edition was first published in 1909. Copies in the original box are scarce. Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubáiyát, first published in 1859, slowly gained recognition as a masterpiece of English literature. By the early 1900s, many of Fitzgerald's phrases had entered the common stock of English quotations and allusions; a growing 'cult of the Rubáiyát' found expression in "the Omar Khayyám Clubs of England and America" (Yohannan, p. 202). A further 500 copies of Pogany's illustrated edition were printed for the US. Not in Potter. John D. Yohannan, Persian Poetry in England and America, 1977. Large octavo. Colour frontispiece with loose tissue guard and 12 colour plates, all by Pogány, title page printed in brown, decorations and illustrations to the text. Original bluish green morocco, spine lettered in gilt, raised bands, circular floral motif in gilt with coloured onlays to front cover, pale marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. With publisher's green card box with paper title label on side of lid. Ownership stamp in blind of one Peter J. Wills to front free endpaper. A few faint marks to boards, light foxing to edges: two corners of box split, repair to one corner: a near-fine copy.