Photography
FITZGERALD, Edward (translator). OMAR KHAYYÁM (author). Mabel Eardley-Wilmot (photographer). The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. The Astronomer Poet of Persia. London; Kegan, Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. 1912

4to. Publisher’s white decorative cloth blocked in dark green, black and gilt to an Islamic design to upper cover, lettered gilt to spine, top edges gilt, others untrimmed; pp. [vi], vii-xix + [112], on fine quality laid paper; with half title and title-page in olive green and black and decorative initials throughout in green alongside 38 monochrome photogravures mounted-at-large, after original photographs by Eardley-Wilmot; an attractive copy with some external dusting and dulling to spine gilt, internally very clean and fresh throughout with light spotting confined to frontispiece tissue-guard but otherwise extremely clean, and all plates fine.

First edition illustrated thus.  An atmospheric and strikingly printed edition of the Rubáiyát, complete with the printed publisher’s slip, loosely laid in, “The terms on which this work is supplied to the Booksellers do not admit of discount to the public”.

Mabel Eardley-Wilmot (1867-1958) was a British photographer known for her photopoetic interpretations of literary works, especially in British India.  She was born in Loughton, Essex and, in 1891, married Sainthill Eardley-Wilmot who was a senior civil servant in Lucknow, India. She and their daughter would accompany him on his travels around the subcontinent, facilitating her development as a pioneering woman photographer in the Edwardian era. Here she provides a visual window into colonial India, with a contemporary review praising the book for its successful rendition of Omar Khayyám’s environment.  Examples of her work in this book feature among the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.