CROWLEY, Aleister.

[ Rodin in Rime ] Seven Lithographs by Clot from the Water-Colours of Auguste Rodin, with a Chaplet of Verse by Aleister Crowley.

London: Printed for the author at the Chiswick Press, 1907. First Edition. Hardcover. Folio. x + 68 pp. Original gilt-stamped white buckram boards with gilt titling to spine and front board. Seven full-page color lithographs of reclining female nudes executed by Clot after pencil and wash designs by Auguste Rodin. Edition limited to 488 copies on handmade paper (there were also 10 copies on China paper and 2 on vellum). Crowley's poetic interpretation of a number of Rodin's artworks, alongside lithographic reproductions of seven sketches with water-colours of female nudes which Rodin presented to him during a visit in 1903. The book is actually far scarcer than it's limitation implies: apparently much of the stock was stored in a warehouse that flooded, and thus many copies were destroyed or damaged, although Crowley salvaged what he could. Surviving copies all show some damp discoloration to the margins of the plates. As this is not evident in the rest of the body of the books - other than by off-setting - it would seem to suggest that they were still unbound at the time of the flood, and that it was the pile of plates that suffered most. The white boards have the usual darkening & discoloration as well as some light flecking, and there is a large "shadowed" section on the front board, presumably where it sat for a long time against a smaller book. There is darkening to the front cloth hinge and dark lines (again offset from another book?) on the rear board. Corners and head and tail of spine lightly bumped, and a few small snags to cloth. As always the plates show some discoloration and there is some shadowing and offsetting to the pages adjacent to the plates as is typical with this book. Page edges and endpapers unevenly darkened, internals unusually bright and clean. A solid, about VG copy, of a book which due to its rarity, size and fragility, is seldom seen in better condition. Item #61156

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