Oct 24 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2683 -
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Sale 2683 - Lot 206

Estimate: $ 700 - $ 900
Morrell, Sir Charles [aka James Kenneth Ridley] (1736-1765)
The Tales of Genii: Or, The Delightful Lessons of Horam the Son of Asmar.

London: Printed for James Wallis by Thomas Davison, 1805.

Two octavo volumes; illustrated with frontispieces, vignette titles, and 10 etched plates all hand-colored after drawings by W.M. Craig; bound in period full uniform stencil-decorated calf, enhanced with gilt ruling and tooled panels, spines with two sets of labels, gilt-tooled board edges, marbled endleaves, turn-ins decorated with a leaf motif, all edges gilt (expertly rebacked, endleaves renewed); 8 1/8 x 5 in.

Written under a pseudonym, this orientalist pastiche was modeled on the Arabian Nights and was originally passed off as an authentic narrative by a Persian imam called Horam. Hand-colored copies rarely appear at auction, the present is the first offered since 1990.

Provenance: Charles Napier, 1st Baron Lawrence of Kingsgate (1855-1927) with armorial bookplate in each volume.
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