The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.

2009. London; The Folio Society. 2009. Folio. Finely hand-bound in half cream vellum, with vellum corner tips over dark blue boards, the upper cover pictorially and lavishly blocked in metallic golds and copper to a design of peacocks, the spine exquisitely hand-lettered in Islamic script in 22-carat gold by Stephen Raw, top edges gilt, others uncut, with pictorial free endpapers and original blue silk ribbon bookmark, bound by The Fine Book Bindery and preserved in a handsome dark blue cloth-covered slipcase with gilt lettering label to spine; pp. [viii] + 216 + [iii], printed on fine Cordier wove paper; strikingly and beautifully illustrated with 16 large coloured plates by Puttapipat mounted-at-large within decorative panels together with other decorations, quatrain-headings, and vignettes in the text, alongside a fine original etching hand-printed on mould-made paper, which is signed and numbered by the artist, mounted within a floral gilt border on heavy blue Marcato Nettuno stock, and bound before the title; a fine copy presented in an equally fine slipcase. First edition illustrated thus, limited to only 1,000 numbered copies (in commerce) with an original signed etching by the artist. This sumptuous edition was produced by the Folio Society to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the first edition of Edward Fitzgerald's translation of The Rubáiyát (1859) and very rapidly sold out. It has since proved elusive. The text for this version follows that of the first edition, with only minor emendations, and contains a 10-page introduction by the author A.S. Byatt.