Birth, Life and Acts of King Arthur..: and in the End le Morte Darthur.

London: J.M. Dent, 1927. BEARDSLEY, Aubrey; VALLANCE, Aymer|RHYS, John. With Eleven Previously Unpublished Designs in Rare Dust Jacket

BEARDSLEY, Aubrey, [illustrator]. MALORY, Sir Thomas. The Birth Life and Acts of King Arthur of His Noble Knights of the Round Table Their Marvellous Enquests and Adventures the Achieving of the San Greal and in the End Le Morte Darthur with the Dolourous Death and Departing Out of This World of Them All. With an introduction by Professor John Rhys. And a note on Aubrey Beardsley by Aymer Vallance. [London: J.M. Dent & Sons], 1927.

Third edition. Limited to 1,600 copies. Large quarto (11 1/2 x 9 inches; 292 x 230 mm) . lv, 538 pp. With 365 designs by Beardsley, including twenty-two plates (six of which are double-page), decorative borders, initials, and chapter headings (the chapter heading on p. 368 previously unpublished).

Original black cloth over beveled boards stamped in gilt on front cover and spine in a design by Beardsley. Top edge gilt, others uncut. In rare original pictorial dust jacket. Previous owner's bookplate on front endpaper. An 8-inch closed tear through page 183, with the loss of about one letter. Jacket with some chips and small splits at jacket corners and spine Extremities. Jacket a bit soiled and rubbed and with some tape repairs. Overall a very good copy of the book in the scarce dust jacket.

This is the third and most complete edition of Beardsley's Le Morte Darthur, and includes eleven designs and ornaments that had been omitted from the previous editions.

Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England, 314 (describing the first edition).

HBS 67928.

$1,250.