BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (1872-98, illustrator) -- ARISTOPHANES (c.448-380 BC). The Lysistrata of Aristophanes. Translated by Samuel Smith. London: [Leonard Smithers] 1896.
4° (300 x 230mm). Mostly unopened. 8 plates on japan vellum by Aubrey Beardsley. (Light soiling in some margins.) Original paper-backed blue paper-covered boards, printed label on upper side, housed in a custom-made blue cloth clamshell case (extremities rubbed, some soiling).
FIRST EDITION OF BEARDSLEY'S RAREST BOOK, ONE OF ONLY 100 COPIES; this one numbered 4. Beardsley remarked in a letter to Raffalovich: 'I think they are in a way the best things I have ever done'. 'Beardsley had studied Greek vase painting in 1894 at the British Museum, and the Lysistrata drawings reflect something of the Greek vase spirit, including the bawdiness, without perhaps much of the spontaneity of Greek draughtsmanship. The absence of backgrounds, as in the Salome illustrations, makes the designs of closed outlines and bold dots and rare decorated blacks, all the more dramatic' (Reade). Lasner 107; Ray 318; Reade, Aubrey Beardsley, pp.360-361.
BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (1872-98, illustrator) -- ARISTOPHANES (c.448-380 BC). The Lysistrata of Aristophanes. Translated by Samuel Smith. London: [Leonard Smithers] 1896.
4° (300 x 230mm). Mostly unopened. 8 plates on japan vellum by Aubrey Beardsley. (Light soiling in some margins.) Original paper-backed blue paper-covered boards, printed label on upper side, housed in a custom-made blue cloth clamshell case (extremities rubbed, some soiling).
FIRST EDITION OF BEARDSLEY'S RAREST BOOK, ONE OF ONLY 100 COPIES; this one numbered 4. Beardsley remarked in a letter to Raffalovich: 'I think they are in a way the best things I have ever done'. 'Beardsley had studied Greek vase painting in 1894 at the British Museum, and the Lysistrata drawings reflect something of the Greek vase spirit, including the bawdiness, without perhaps much of the spontaneity of Greek draughtsmanship. The absence of backgrounds, as in the Salome illustrations, makes the designs of closed outlines and bold dots and rare decorated blacks, all the more dramatic' (Reade). Lasner 107; Ray 318; Reade, Aubrey Beardsley, pp.360-361.
![BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (1872-98, illustrator) -- ARISTOPHANES (c.448-380 BC). The Lysistrata of Aristophanes. Translated by Samuel Smith. London: [Leonard Smithers] 1896.](https://devapim.christies.com/uat/lot-images/5573462/2012/CKS/2012_CKS_05334_0170_000(beardsley_aubrey_--_aristophanes_the_lysistrata_of_aristophanes_transl102132).jpg?maxwidth=3840)