THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM

London: [Printed by Charles Whittingham & Griggs at the Chiswick Press for] Robt. Rivière & Son, 1928. 210 x 140 mm. (8 1/4 x 5 1/2"). 4 p.l., 75, [1] pp.Translated by Edward FitzGerald.
STRIKING PICTORIAL CARAMEL-COLORED CRUSHED MOROCCO BY RIVIERE (stamp-signed on front turn-in), both covers with handsome inlaid frame of brown stems, green leaves, and purple grapes, the frame on the front board enclosing a gilt chalice with a multi-colored snake coiled around it (frame of back cover enclosing a large cluster of grapes with leaves and stem), the edges of the frame in turn enclosed by the text of Quatrain 58 ("Oh, Thou, . . . .") running from bottom left corner around the perimeter; raised bands, spine panels with onlaid grapes, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt (very skillfully rejointed). 12 hand-colored illustrations by Gilbert James, with original tissue guards. Paas 3908 (with hand-colored plates but bound in gilt-stamped green morocco). ◆Spine evenly darkened, just the tiniest bit of rubbing at spine ends, otherwise quite fine.

With an elaborately inlaid binding and a dozen hand-colored plates, this is the most deluxe version of Riviere's Rubaiyat, which was issued in various forms. It was available without plates, with black & white plates, or with the frontispiece colored, and in a selection of less intricate bindings ranging from printed paper boards to full inlaid morocco--but none of the eight variants described in Paas is as elaborately decorated as ours. There are no ownership marks in our copy, but the opulence of the binding suggests it was done for a special client. Robert Riviere began as a bookseller and binder in Bath in 1829, then set up shop as a binder in London in 1840; in 1881, he took his grandson Percival Calkin into partnership, at which time the firm became known as Riviere & Son. The bindery continued to do business until 1939, when it was acquired by George Bayntun of Bath, a firm that is still producing fine work and is still in family hands. The dream-like illustrations by Gilbert James (1865-1941) were first issued, in monochrome, in 1898, and have appeared in several editions of the Rubaiyat. The hand coloring here greatly increases their impact..