Unknown Artist in 1902 Rubaiyat. Can you help with identification?
We have received the following request from Danton O’Day in Canada. If you can help at all with information, please comment below on this post.
I’m trying to identify one of the artists in my collection. I can’t seem to find any information from regular sources so I thought I’d ask the Khayyam group via this blog. I’ve included a sample illustration plus an enhanced artist’s signature. I’m pretty sure this is not one of the known artists but any help would be appreciated.
5Q20 “Fledges the river-lip on which we lean.”
Enhanced “signature”
Book. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, and Salaman and Absal of Jami, Tr. by Edward FitzGerald, 1902. 5th & 1st with variations of 2nd to 4th Eds., Biographical Preface, “To E. FitzGerald” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, OK by E.F. and “Note by the Editor” W. Aldis Wright, Variations between 2nd, 3rd, 4th, Letter to Professor Cowell, Notice of Jami’s Life, Appendix; EF pic in frontis, 3 BW quatrain illustrations by unknown; Blue linen cover with title in gold and red, gold and black floral design on front and spine (6¼” x 4¼”, 176pp); Homewood Publishing Co., Chicago; Abbey Series
Thanks, Danton O’Day
Omar Khayyam Rubaiyat 
We don’t recognise this illustrator, but the book itself seems very similar to one from the same publisher in 1896. This earlier version is number 291 in Jos Couman’s bibliography. Do any readers of this blog have a copy of either of these books and could comment on the similarities or differences? We know that there is a copy of the 1896 book in the Cleveland Public Library in the USA.
The illustrator is unknown to me as well. I do have two copies of this edition by Homewood Publishing, both not dated. One, which seems the oldest, has a straightforward title page in b&w. The cloth or linen front cover and spine is in green with floral borders and floral elements in black and yellow. Back cover just green. At the end is a list of volumes in the Abbey Series, the last one being number 391: “Zoe” by the author of Laddie.
The other has decorated front and end pages in green, with a little picture that seems to depict a horse. The frontispiece is a portrait of FitzGerald, Title page in red and blue floral elements, on smooth thin paper. Front cover in brownish cloth or linen, with an image of a lady holding a bouquet of flowers, all within floral borders. The spine has title and decorations in gold. There is no mention of a series’ name. The title in both copies reads: “Rendered into English verse byEdward FitzGerald”.
I also have a copy rather similar to the second, but published by The Crowell Publishing Co., Springield, Ohio, also no date. Front and end pages and frontispiece as in the previous edition. The title reads: “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. By Edward FitzGerald”.Title page has floral decorations in red and green. Printed also on smooth thin paper. Green cloth or linen, with title and floral elements in white.The spine shows three crowns and has as series: “My Lady’s Library”. WorldCat has a record of a Homewood edition within the “Oxford and Homewood series, nr. 313”. See http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/747114220
Contents of all three are the same, but none has illustrations. I hope this helps though the artist remains a mystery.
One more detail: these three books differ from the illustrated one in size: they measure ca. 19 x 13 cm.