Item #36617 A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night With Introduction Explanatory Notes On the Manners and Customs of Moslem Men and A Terminal Essay Upon The History of The Nights With Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand ... (Ten Volumes), [plus ] Supplemental Nights To The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night With Notes Anthropological and Explanatory (Seven Volumes). Richard F. BURTON, The Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia set.
A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night With Introduction Explanatory Notes On the Manners and Customs of Moslem Men and A Terminal Essay Upon The History of The Nights With Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand ... (Ten Volumes), [plus ] Supplemental Nights To The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night With Notes Anthropological and Explanatory (Seven Volumes).
A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night With Introduction Explanatory Notes On the Manners and Customs of Moslem Men and A Terminal Essay Upon The History of The Nights With Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand ... (Ten Volumes), [plus ] Supplemental Nights To The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night With Notes Anthropological and Explanatory (Seven Volumes).
A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night With Introduction Explanatory Notes On the Manners and Customs of Moslem Men and A Terminal Essay Upon The History of The Nights With Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand ... (Ten Volumes), [plus ] Supplemental Nights To The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night With Notes Anthropological and Explanatory (Seven Volumes).

A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night With Introduction Explanatory Notes On the Manners and Customs of Moslem Men and A Terminal Essay Upon The History of The Nights With Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand ... (Ten Volumes), [plus ] Supplemental Nights To The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night With Notes Anthropological and Explanatory (Seven Volumes).

NP: Printed by The Burton Club for Private Subscribers Only, ND (circa 1903). First Edition Thus - Second Issue. Hardcovers. Large octavos. (9 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches) 17 Volumes. Original decorated black cloth: the 10 volumes of text with decorations to the cloth in gold, the 7 volumes of the Supplemental Nights in silver. Title pages and 114 b&w plates printed on "vellum paper." Title pages printed in red and black. According to Penzer's "An Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Francis Burton" (pp. 126-135) the Burton Club edition was first issued in 1903 and is basically a reprint of the original unexpurgated Kamashastra Society edition of 1885-8 except that it comprises 17 volumes rather than 16 (Penzer explains: "the extra volume being formed by splitting the large third Supplemental volume into two separate volumes of equal size with the rest") and has added illustrations. A limitation notice on the verso of the title-page describes this as the "Illustrated Benares Edition, issued by the Burton Club, for private circulation, among its members, and is strictly limited to one thousand sets." Penzer states that the first issue was bound in a "drab buckram" with the second issue "bound in imitation of the original, i.e. in black cloth with gold and silver diagonal bands" (as is this set). Again according to Penzer the Benares Edition was the first to be issued by the Burton Club, it was evidently very successful, and they subsequently went on to do a number of other editions, each limited to 1000 copies and identified by a particular place-name. Each volume has the engraved armorial bookplate of the Lepper family of co. Antrim, Ireland, with the motto: "Deo Ducente" (meaning "God is my Guide") on the front pastedown. In addition Vol. I of the text series has a lengthy contemporary bookseller's description of the set - obviously clipped from a catalogue - tipped onto the front pastedown of that volume. No other library marks. below which On the adjacent front free endpaper of the same volume "Bought from Ditchman August 1906. Not to be removed from Rhanbury, Carrickfergus" (that is the home of the Lepper family). One of the members of the Lepper family, John Heron Lepper, was a VII degree member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA) and active Freemason who wrote variously on Rosicrucian and Masonic subjects. Not long after the family acquired the set it was donated, presumably at John Heron Lepper's suggestion, to the private library of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (S.R.I.A.) - the occult fraternity which begat the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. EACH volume has the wonderful large (6 1/2 inch x 4 1/4 inch) bookplate of the S.R.I.A. on the rear pastedown. Most volumes show the predictable wear for a large heavy set: the spines are sometimes somewhat leaned, the gilt work dulled and cloth lightly discolored, occasional light bubbling to the cloth, the corners are sometimes bumped (generally more gently bruised) and in a few cases the boards are just starting to show under the cloth at the points. Heads and tails of spines lightly bruised, and sometimes with a couple of small snags and tears to the cloth. Endpapers darkened, and very occasional shadowing or spots of foxing to the pages. Still, the volumes are complete and solid, and typically in better condition than most sets of this age find themselves. A solid, better than VG set with a remarkable provenance. Item #36617

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