1926 Rare 1stED - Lord Byron's DON JUAN illustrated by John Austen & bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.

---

This beautiful book has been sold...

Search for other similar books from our bookseller friends!

 

---

(description)

Author : Lord Byron (Illustrations & Decorations By John Austen).
Title : Don Juan By Lord Byron with 93 Illustrations & Decorations By John Austen.
Publisher : London: John Lane the Bodley Head Ltd., 1926. First edition illustrated by John Austen.
Language : Text in English.
Size : 9.5 " X 6 ".
Pages : xi-408 pages.
Binding : Attractive, very beautiful and very good full leather binding bounded by Sangorski and Sutcliffe (hinges fine, overall slightly scuffed)  under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content : Very good content (bright, tight and clean)
Illustrations : Complete with 93 beautiful illustrations and decorations by John Austen. The illustrations are erotic, but not pornographic; in an art deco style, they are actually quite delightful.

The book : A very attractive first illustrated edition curiosa of Don Juan -  the famous satiric poem by Lord Byron, based on the legend of Don Juan, which Byron reverses, portraying Juan not as a womaniser but as someone easily seduced by women. It is a variation on the epic form. Byron himself called it an "Epic Satire" (Don Juan, c. xiv, st. 99). Byron completed 16 cantos, leaving an unfinished 17th canto before his death in 1824. Byron claimed that he had no ideas in his mind as to what would happen in subsequent cantos as he wrote his work. This copy in a beautiful binding by Sangorski and Sutcliffe.

The illustrator: John Archibald Austen (Dover (Kent), 5 January 1886 – Hythe (Kent), 27 October 1948) was an English book illustrator. He moved to London in 1906 where he studied art. His early works, including a fine Hamlet, were Beardsleyesque in style, but after 1925 he was influenced by the Art Deco movement. Books which he illustrated in this manner include Daphnis and Chloe, DON JUAN and As You Like it. 

The binder: Sangorski & Sutcliffe is a firm of bookbinders established in London in 1901. It is considered to be one of the most important bookbinding companies of the 20th century, famous for its luxurious jeweled bindings that used real gold and precious stones in their book covers.