Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia. Rendered Into English Verse.

London: Macmillan and Co., Limited,, 1903. Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night / Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight... A beautiful, bright example of a "vellucent" binding by Cedric Chivers, with floral arabesque decorations and several choice mother-of-pearl inlays. Chivers (1853-1929), one of the most successful bookbinders of the turn of the century, developed a new and distinctive technique for binding books in the 1890s. His elaborate cover designs were painted on paper and then covered by vellum, which had been treated in order to become thin and translucent ("vellucent"). Sometimes exotic materials, such as mother-of pearl, were also added underneath the vellum, and gilt tooling applied over the top. Chivers patented his method in 1898 and used it to create some of the most beautiful books of the turn of the century, and his style became closely associated with the arts and crafts movement. Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubáiyát was first published in 1859; he continued to revise the poem throughout his life, publishing his fourth and final edition in 1879. The present publication prints the text of Fitzgerald's first and fourth editions, as well as his preface and notes, with an appendix on "variations between the second, third, and fourth editions". Small quarto (203 x 147 mm). Finely bound in contemporary full vellum by Cedric Chivers of Bath over light bevelled boards, hand-painted in his distinctive "vellucent" style in blue, green, and red, elaborately decorated with floral arabesques and mother-of-pearl inlays, dotted in gilt, spine and front cover lettered in manuscript, twin gilt borders to covers and vellum doublures, yellow marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Housed in a dark blue cloth flat-back box by the Chelsea Bindery. Hint of rubbing to vellum, a fine copy.