Thomson, Eben Francis; Khayyan, Omar

THE ROSE GARDEN OF OMAR KHAYYAM [and related items].

Six printed items of varying sizes, contained within a multi-compartmented red leather clamshell box with marbled papered sides, the box lightly worn. Comprises 3 increasingly smaller editions of the title work, each bound in slightly different shades of gilt lettered red leather; plus A Thimblefull of Books (a 36 page brief history and survey of miniature books, also by Thomson, dated 1933); Kind Words About the Smallest Printed Book in the World (reproducing various letters in praise of the enterprise); a proof sheet from the smallest version of the Rose Garden contained in a glassine envelope within printed paper wrappers; and a tiny magnifying glass for viewing the smaller items; privately printed, Worcester, MA, 1932-3. Limited to 250 copies. Bondy pp. 154-5; Bromer & Edison p. 115-6. *First published in 1910, The Rose Garden of Omar Khayyam is a translation of the leading representative quatrains of the Rubaiyat made into an eclogue by Eben Francis Thomson, based on his 1906 translation of the complete work. The two larger versions in this set (both vi+28 pages, printed in red & black), measure 4.5 cm. x 3.5 cm. and 15 cm. x 12 cm. respectively. The tiny miniature, (oblong 4 mm. x 6 mm.) is housed within a small removable gilt card box with a circular perspex viewing lid. It was the result of a challenge from the author to Hamilton B. Wood of the Commonwealth Press, to produce the smallest book in the world - and was accepted as such at the time of publication and for many years afterwards. (Louis Bondy, Miniature Books, devotes a chapter to 'The smallest books in the world' which leads with a detailed description of this boxed set, and notes that some later items also described as being the 'smallest in the world' were in fact larger than the miniature Rose Garden). According to Bromer & Edison, the miniature Rose Garden took seven years to complete. Even the bookplate (of Kathryn Ida Hill Rickard, on the verso of the box lid and on upper wrapper verso of Kind Words) in this set is itself a miniature. Item #128612

Price: $1,950.00