Malory, Thomas. MORTE D'ARTHUR. J. M. Dent, London, 1893. First Edition thus. Edition of 300 printed on Dutch handmade paper, this copy Numbered "72." (There was a "regular" editiion of 1500). Three Volumes, quarto, half-vellum over gray boards, bound by Zaehnsdorf, gilt titles on the vellum, a total of 984 pages of text, plus introduction, glossary, index etc. All twelve of the covers for the original parts are bound-in. Illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley, with 18 wood-engraved plates, 5 of which are double page, photogravure frontispieces in volumes I and III, and a profusion of in-text illustrations and decorative headings and borders. The binding very fresh and tight, the text partly uncut, and with offsetting and light foxing to some of the plates as is usual with this set when tissue-guards were not used in the binding.This was Beardsley's first major work, undertaken when he was only twenty years old. He received the commission from Dent upon the recommendation of Frederick Evans, to whom Beardsley had traded drawings in exchange for books. The production was an effort by Dent to produce a book competitive in quality to those published by the Kelmscott Press.
