COVE

The version of the well-known and incredibly popular Rubaiyat that I have chosen to become my best friend is an absolutely gorgeous edition printed in London, England, in 1909. The Rubaiyat is a poem highlighting the feelings of impending death, making the most of life while one is in it, and the barriers of pleasure and religion. The poem was originally published in 1859, but didn't reach popularity until the 1880s. It was a very popular gift around Christmastime and New Year’s, especially in the years following the Civil War. Nowadays, the poem has been copied and re-copied in every variation possible. 

My particular version is entitled The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, written in English, but typeface in a font resembling Farsi, the original published language of the poem. This 182-page version is full of illustrations, too, beautiful images created on paper that are different from the rest of the poem. While the poem was originally written by Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald did the English translation, and he translated the poem several times. This copy employs the most common translation, the very first one. Willy Pogany was hired for this illustrated version, published by George Harrap and Co. in London. 

The illustrations appear to have a watercolor or pastel quality, the images coming through shapes and essences rather than crisp lines and ink. Willy Pogany was a Hungarian artist who completed the illustrations when he was twenty-seven years old. 

Besides the lush illustrations and the wonderful smell of ink on paper with a dash of dust, the edition’s title is gilded in cold on the cover and full of decorations around each individual one of the stanza numbers. The impressive thing is, and something I only noticed during my third or fourth perusal was that each stanza decoration is different, much like snowflakes. The individuality is very impressive, and very time-consuming to create. This incredible attention to detail wraps around to the actual stanza’s text, where the same design as the stanza number surrounds the first word of two of the stanza. (First Image)

There is also a very curious and exciting inscription in the inside cover of the edition, written in pencil, slightly smudged from wear: a description of the edition’s illustrator, along with a quick side note. The edition was one out of only five hundred and twenty-five, and it cost (at least at the time of purchase) $325! I felt like I was on Antiques Roadshow! (Second Image) I did some quick math and research on the value of one dollar in 1909, and was shocked by what I found. $1 in 1909 is equivalent to about $33 today. This means that the edition I held in my hands would have cost about $10,000 today, not even including the rarity (1/525), careful condition, and other factors like the illustrator’s signature. (Third Image) 

However, upon my second donning of my gloves, I was told to look closer at that curious inscription about the pricing of the edition. It is entirely possible that the pencil writing was done at a much later date than 1909. Looking at handwritng samples from various decades from schools in order to see what penmanship curriculum was being taught when, and I compared the samples to the inscription in my edition. This was NOT a perfect science by any means. This was an experiment to help me understand a timeframe around the illustrated edition. 

I came to the conclusion that the handwriting is MOST similar to what was taught in schools in the 1950s, though it is not a perfect match. Print handwriting is very volitile and often hybrid, which makes it hard to pin down. Had this book been sold in the 1950s, rather than 1909 like I had originally thought, the edition including all of the bells and whisteles described above, would be worth closer to just over $4000 today, a number that is far easier to absorb in today's mindset. 

Khayyam, Omar. (Edward FitzGerald). The Rubaiyat. London, United Kingdom, Vincent and Brooks, 1909.