Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory and illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley. Two volumes published by J.M. Dent and Co. in 1893. One of 1500 copies on thick, ordinary paper. A particularly nice set. Of further interest is the name-plate inside the cover of both copies for Leslie Cowlishaw. He was a famous bibliophile and medical practitioner in Sydney, Australia in the early to mid twentieth century.
Both copies have quite bright cream cloth covers (with minimal soiling and wear) with gilt decorations and deckled edges (with the usual toning) to the front and bottom of the text block. The top of the block is gilt with some slight foxing on both. Volume 1: There is a slight soiling and wear to the gilt especially to the bottom of the spine. There is some light foxing to the preliminaries as is the case with Volume 2. The frontspiece shows some spotting around the edges and some slight cracking of the paper where it is attached to the book but is intact. The tissue guard is present but folded with a small tear. The remainder of the book other than some light toning and extremely rare slight spotting is in excellent condition. Volume 2: This is much the same again with some spotting around the fronts-piece but an intact tissue guard. There is also some rare slight spotting on a few pages. Overall a very good pair of books.
Sale price includes insurance for postage,