Lot 149: BURTON -- LETCHFORD, Albert (1866-1905). A Series of Seventy Original Illustrations to Captain Sir R.F. Burton's "Arabian Nights" . London: H.S. Nichols, 1897.

BURTON -- LETCHFORD, Albert (1866-1905). A Series of Seventy Original Illustrations to Captain Sir R.F. Burton's "Arabian Nights". London: H.S. Nichols, 1897.

2° (545 x 430mm). Portrait frontispiece and 70 plates after Letchford, with printed guards. (Title, preliminary leaves and guards spotted, dampstaining in some margins not affecting the plates.) Unbound as issued; in a modern red cloth clamshell case with black cloth chemise.

FIRST EDITION, THE LARGER-SIZE 'CHOICE DELUXE' ISSUE of Letchford's illustrations for his friend's translation of the Arabian Nights. One of 250 copies, this one numbered 84. Letchford's paintings were not ready for the first edition of Burton's translation, published without any illustrations in 1885-1888; so they were instead incorporated in the Nichols edition of 1897. Penzer, p. 124.