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Deluxe edition, one of 100 copies numbered and signed by the artist (this copy being No. 48), out of a total edition of 775 copies "for sale in the United States of America"). Large quarto (11 15/16 x 9 5/8 inches; 303 x 243 mm.). [12], 150, [1], [1, printer s imprint] pp. Ten mounted color plates, with descriptive tissue guards. Top edge gilt, others uncut. Decorative endpapers. Original quarter vellum over cream paper boards. Front cover and spine decoratively stamped and lettered in gilt. A Fine copy in the Near Fine original printed dust jacket. From the renowned collection of Estelle Doheny, with her neat leather book-plate on front paste-down. Despite L�onard Rosenthal wanting Dulac to illustrate his book, Au Royaume de la Perle (The Kingdom of the Pearl) was first published in 1919 without illustrations. "But when, in 1920, Dulac found time to produce 10 pictures, Mr. Rosenthal not only purchased the water colours, but had another publisher, Piazza of Paris, publish a 1,500-copy new edition of his Perle book with the Dulac illustrations.�The English edition, although praised by The Times Literary critic as Dulac at his best and fantastically Persian, was not a commercial success. In order to make use of the 775 sheets remaining from 1,550 printed for the English edition, arrangements were made in 1925 to market an edition through Brentano s, booksellers in New York�The Pearl pictures indeed display a ripening of a Dulac style first seen in Sindbad the Sailor, employed in some of his Fairy Book pictures and developed fully in The Tanglewood Tales. It is a Persian miniature style, but made quite his own�His plates, truly genius, do much to bring a fanciful touch to the otherwise stark exposition of a treatise on pearls" (Hughey). French-born anglophile Edmond Dulac (1882-1953) was one of the most prized artists of the "golden age" of book illustration. A gifted artist, especially in the medium of watercolor, Dulac s ability to render luxurious detail and subtle emotions is otherworldly. He is best known for his illustrations for books and magazines, although he also designed for the stage and wrote music; in moments of financial insecurity he produced serialized cartoons and became an authority on postage stamp design (White). Hughey 54d. Fine in Near Fine dust jacket.

The Kingdom of the Pearl is an illustrated book by Leonard Rosenthal with illustrations by Edmund Dulac.