Stories from the Arabian Nights. by DULAC, Edmund (illus.) - 1907: Retold by Laurence Housman.

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1907. Original richly decorated vellum Signed limited edition, number 302 of 350 copies numbered and signed by the artist. It was this book that first announced Dulac's status as a popular artist, confirming him as "a direct challenger in the illustrated gift book market to the work of Arthur Rackham... The exotic stories he illustrated struck a new chord in Dulac. They allowed him to enlarge his skill at caricature, and at the same time to sharpen his miniaturist's technique and to develop his lyrical sense of tone and composition. The sources he turned to were Japanese prints, which he had studied in his youth, with their flat colour and asymetry, and the high detail and colour of Indian and Persian miniatures" (ODNB). Quarto. Original vellum, spine and front cover lettered and decorated in gilt with blue highlights, dark green endpapers, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Colour frontispiece and 49 other plates tipped-in on dark green paper, all with captioned tissue-guards. Some light soiling to vellum, silk ties absent as usual, some very light foxing. A very good copy.