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This pocket copy of the Rubaiyat came in a box labelled 'Omar No. 4', wrapped up in waxed paper!
Cover of pocket edition of The Rubaiyat, published by George G. Harrap & Co. - undated, possibly 1930s?
One of eight beautiful illustrations by Willy Pogany.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is one of those books that many people have heard of but few have read! For some, it assumed mystical qualities of almost mythical proportions.
Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) was an Islamic scholar whose contribution to science far exceeded his ability as a poet. He compiled astronomical tables and contributed to calendar reform and discovered a geometrical method of solving cubic equations by intersecting a parabola with a circle.
It was Edward Fitzgerald who translated a collection of Khayyam's quatrians (four line poems), using the term 'rubaiyat'. His first translation appeared in 1859 - many more followed.
Willy Pogany was one of many fine early 20th century artists who took up the challenge of illustrating The Rubaiyat. Originally produced in 1909, eight of his plates appear (single sided) in this edition.
As you can see, this edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam comes carefully wrapped in waxed paper, in a box labelled 'Omar No. 4'. It is small (5.5" x 4") but perfectly formed - tan (leather?) with black borders, embossed decoration on black on both the front and the spine, with gilt lettering engraved. There are 75 quatrains, one to a page, with a light brown decoration above and below each quatrain. The plates are 'tipped-in', which means that they are attached to the pages, but they're not integral to the binding. There's an under-stated brown decorative border around each plate.
The book is published by George Harrap & Co., but it isn't dated. There's a very neat inscription on the fly title (the page before the title page), dated 1948 - so it's certainly no later than that, and similar copies have been dated in the 1920s.