1929 Lzf

Copies examined

Nottingham University Library KMC:

Spec. Coll. PR4091.V2

Title page

[A]1^r

Note

Printed at University Press, Oxford; 10 autolithos by Curwen Press.

Colophon and limitation

Z3^v

Frontispiece

facing [A]1^r

1-leaf insert, recto blank, illustration on verso facing t.p.

B1^r

Introduction by the Translator	1
Vathek	13
Textual note	170

Collation

[A] B⁴-Z⁴, single-leaf unpaged inserts, 1 side left blank, illustrations facing pp.28, 53, 70, 85, 114, 126, 156.

Pagination

[1] 2-172 [+4].

Technical description

9" × 6⅛", top edge rough-gilt, no head- or tail-bands, white/grey laid with flecks of colour, no mark; 12(+6)pt. Plantin; line blocks in black with autolithograph colour done by Curwen Press, headpiece on p.[13]; casing, spine art vellum covering ½" of boards, gold-blocked near head: ‘BECKFORD'S | VATHEK | [scimitar]’, boards brick-brown paper, upper cover gold-blocked with arabic title design; boards lined with paper with swirly marbled pattern.

Notes

Not in Curwen Library or 1963 handlist; added at suggestion of Douglas Ball and Pat Gilmour.

I owe this addition to Stephen Massil; Vathek, an 'oriental tale' (see Drabble 2000) was written in French by Beckford, translated and first published in English in 1786; the fictionalised title character is supposedly the 9th of the Abbasid Caliphs.

See Dreyfus 1981 cat. 60: on text and display typefaces, Grimsditch's 'reliable and worthy' translation, Marion Dorn, and T.L.S. correspondence about the work's date.

The illustrations are autolithographs, confirmed by (Gilmour 1977 p.22), the first printed at Curwen for book illustration, so Herbert Simon (Simon 1973 p.217) correctly omits this book from his chapter (XIX) on the Stencil process. Title-page mentions 10 illustrations: frontispiece, titlepiece vignette, headpiece on p.13 and 7 designs on inserts totals 10. Dorn (a Californian) later married Kauffer.

Shown at the Zwemmer Gallery 1930 (see Mzi).

Nottingham copy is numbered 428.