Absalom, a Chronicle Play in Three Acts by MOORE, T. Sturge - 1903

London: At the Sign of the Unicorn, 1903. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Very slight rubbing at extremities, some foxing at fore-edges, else a fine copy. 12mo. Original light green cloth gilt, top edges gilt, after a design by Moore. Provenance: Frederic Dannay (his sale Christie's New York, 16 December 1983, lot 249). First edition. The dedication copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: "To W. A. Pye with affectionate regard from T. S. Moore, 7/2/1903." The printed dedication is simply "To W. A. P." The dedicatee was William Arthur Pye, a wine merchant and collector of contemporary and Asian art, who had introduced Moore to his daughter Sybil in 1899. Moore and Sybil Pye developed a life-long friendship (at one point he proposed marriage). She became an esteemed British bookbinder, producing her first binding in 1906 after establishing a workshop in her father's house. Colbeck, p. 571; for Moore's binding designs, see John Russell Taylor, 'The Art Nouveau Book in Britain' (1966). (BA).