The Kingdom of the Pearl.

ROSENTHAL, Leonard; Edmund Dulac.

Item Number: 110171

New York: Brentano's, 1921.

First American edition of Dulac’s lavishly illustrated interpretation of Russian-born Oriental pearl merchant Leonard Rosenthal’s The Kingdom of the Pearl. Quarto, original half cloth over decorated boards, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, pictorial endpapers, illustrated by Dulac with ten tissue-guarded mounted plates in full color. One of 675 numbered copies, this is number 295. In near fine condition.

Edmund Dulac was a French-born, British naturalized magazine illustrator and book illustrator. Born in Toulouse, he studied law but later turned to the study of art the École des Beaux-Arts. He moved to London early in the 20th century and in 1905 received his first commission to illustrate the novels of the Brontë Sisters. During World War I, Dulac produced relief books and when the deluxe children's book market shrank after the war, he turned to magazine illustrations among other ventures. He designed banknotes during World War II and postage stamps, most notably those that heralded the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. Well-known Russian-born Oriental pearl merchant Léonard Rosenthal's Kingdom of the pearl provides a broad overview of the history, myths, legends, treatment, price and historic sales of pearls.