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Blind Horse Books [ABAA]
Blind Horse Books [ABAA - FABA]
Membership(s): ABAA, ILAB, IOBA, FABA
Housman, Laurence (1865–1959) Princess Badoura: A Tale from the Arabian Nights [Golden Age Color Plates]
$650.00
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1913. Illustrated by Edward Dulac (1882-1953). First Printing, Trade. A luminous Edwardian retelling of an Arabian Nights tale, lavishly illustrated by Edmund Dulac at the height of his powers. The jewel-like color plates and richly decorated binding make Princess Badoura one of the most visually striking productions of the Golden Age of Illustration.This 1913 trade first presents Laurence Housman’s retelling of the story of Princess Badoura, drawn from The Thousand and One Nights, and illustrated with ten color plates by Edmund Dulac. Issued during Dulac’s most celebrated period, the book exemplifies his refined decorative style, combining Persian and East Asian motifs with a distinctive Edwardian elegance.
The story follows the love between a Persian prince and a Chinese princess, both confined by their royal parents after refusing arranged marriages. Their fates are intertwined through the intervention of genies, leading to trials, transformation, and eventual reunion. Housman’s text emphasizes wit, resilience, and moral agency, echoing Scheherazade’s role as both storyteller and survivor within the larger Arabian Nights tradition.
Bound in cream cloth decorated in gilt and turquoise; Teal endpapers with peacock embellishments, Quarto; approximately 10¼ × 7¾ inches. [ii], 113 pages. Illustrated with 10 color plates by Edmund Dulac, each mounted and protected by captioned tissue guards. All plates present.
Moderate wear to the binding with minor age-soiling to cloth, dimming to the sunned spine, small neat tears to the head and tail of the spine, and mild warping to the rear board. A slight hint of spine exposure at the center of the text block. Binding remains firm and sound. Foxing heaviest at the endpapers, with occasional light spotting or smudging to interior pages; pages otherwise unmarked.
Princess Badoura occupies a notable place within the Golden Age of Illustration, pairing Dulac’s ornamental color work with a narrative drawn from one of the most enduring story cycles in world literature. Dulac’s plates emphasize atmosphere and symbolism over literal realism, using stylized figures, flattened perspective, and rich decorative patterning that influenced book design and illustration well into the twentieth century.
The volume remains especially valued by collectors for its visual coherence, period binding, and the completeness of its illustrative program.
Subjects: Edmund Dulac’s color illustration, Arabian Nights adaptations, decorative cloth bindings, Edwardian book design, and early twentieth-century illustrated gift books, Illustrated literature of the Edwardian period, fantasy and folklore derived from The Arabian Nights, and Golden Age of Illustration book production.
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