"The Kingdom of the Pearl" 1925 Rosenthal, Leonard

Details

Description

ROSENTHAL, Leonard

[151] pp.

Brentano's

1925

11 1/2" x 9 3/4"

9 plates illustrated by Edmund Dulac

Of this edition … Read more ROSENTHAL, Leonard

[151] pp.

Brentano's

1925

11 1/2" x 9 3/4"

9 plates illustrated by Edmund Dulac

Of this edition 675 copies have been printed of which this is No. 335

Despite Léonard Rosenthal wanting Dulac to illustrate his book, Au Royaume de la Perle (The Kingdom of the Pearl) was first published in 1919 without illustrations. “But when, in 1920, Dulac found time to produce 10 pictures, Mr. Rosenthal not only purchased the water colours, but had another publisher, Piazza of Paris, publish a 1,500-copy new edition of his ‘Perle’ book with the Dulac illustrations.…The English edition, although praised by The Times Literary critic as Dulac ‘at his best’ and ‘fantastically Persian,’ was not a commercial success. In order to make use of the 775 sheets remaining from 1,550 printed for the English edition, arrangements were made in 1925 to market an edition through Brentano’s, booksellers in New York…The ‘Pearl’ pictures indeed display a ripening of a Dulac style first seen in Sindbad the Sailor, employed in some of his Fairy Book pictures and developed fully in The Tanglewood Tales. It is a Persian miniature style, but made quite his own…His plates, truly genius, do much to bring a fanciful touch to the otherwise stark exposition of a treatise on pearls” (Hughey). See less