Princess Badoura

[London]: Hodder and Stoughton, 1913. So Exquisite as to Make One Hold One's Breath"

[DULAC, Edmund, illustrator]. [ARABIAN NIGHTS]. Princess Badoura. A Tale from the Arabian Nights. Retold by Laurence Housman. Illustrated by Edmund Dulac. London: Hodder and Stoughton, [n.d., 1913].

Edition De Luxe. Limited to seven hundred and fifty copies signed by Edmund Dulac (this being No. 252).

Large quarto (11 3/16 x 8 7/8 inches; 287 x 226 mm.). [viii], 113, [1, printer's imprint], [2, blank] pp. Ten mounted color plates (including frontispiece), with tissue guards printed at top with the design from the title-page and descriptive letterpress in light olive ink. Title within fanciful line border and with design of two winged figures holding high an urn of flowers in light olive ink. Text within similar line border in light olive ink.

Publisher's cream buckram pictorially stamped in pale green and gilt (with design from title-page embellished by two peacocks and additional lines) and lettered in gilt on front cover and decoratively stamped in pale green and gilt and lettered in gilt on spine. Top edge gilt, others uncut. Spine very slightly darkened, otherwise a near fine copy.
With the original Leicester Galleries 1913 exhibition advertisement sheet laid in.

Princess Badoura. A Tale from the Arabian Nights is a 1913 short story written by Laurence Housman and illustrated by Edmund Dulac. Based on a tale from "One Thousand and One Nights", this beautifully-illustrated story is highly recommend for lovers of folklore and collectors of classic fairy tales.

Edmund Dulac (1882 - 1953) was a French-born British illustrator and stamp designer. He was born in Toulouse and studied law there, but later, realising that his true passion was illustration, studied art the École des Beaux-Arts. Having moved to London in the early 20th century, Dulac received his first commission to illustrate the novels of the Brontë Sisters in 1905. During the First World War, he illustrated relief books; and after the war, when children's books were in low demand, he began illustrating magazines. Other notable works containing Dulac's illustrations include: "The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales" (1910), "Stories from Hans Christian Andersen" (1911), and "The Bells and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe" (1912). Pook Press celebrates the great 'Golden Age of Illustration' in children's literature - a period of unparalleled excellence in book illustration. We publish rare and vintage classic illustrated books, in high-quality colour editions, so that the masterful artwork and story-telling can continue to delight both young and old.

"Nothing more purely beautiful has ever come even from Dulac's fairy brush than the picture of Badoura in the arms of Camaralzaman against a background so exquisite as to make one hold one's breath" (from the review in The Outlook, November 15, 1913, Supplement XIII, quoted in Hughey).

Hughey 31.