Small Rubaiyats...

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (no. 6 in the Sesame Booklets series), George G. Harrap & Co., Covent Garden, London, nd.

Sextodecimo; suede yapp covers, with decorated endpapers and gilt spine title, with gilt upper board decoration; 69pp., top edges gilt, with a full-colour frontispiece. Wear and sunning to the binding; some browning to the text block edges; minor foxing to the preliminaries. Very good.

One thing which is a feature of collecting copies of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that many versions are quite small. There are various reasons for this but the main one is that it became more economical for publishers to produce small copies in the duodecimo (12mo) or sextodecimo (16mo) format, as the amount of paper required to produce one octavo volume could be stretched to create four, six, or even more. While the poem was in its heyday and people often bought and exchanged copies which could be carried in a pocket or purse, this just made good sense from a monetary standpoint.

The giving of copies of the Rubaiyat to friends and lovers was a common occurrence, as we have already seen in the case of Somerton Man. Some publishers even produced their versions with this notion in mind, leading to various “Love and Friendship”, or “Fidelity” printings.

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, translated by Edward FitzGerald, (Zodiac series), Chatto and Windus, London, 1940.

Octavo; hardcover with decorated boards; 32pp. Front free endpaper removed; previous owner’s inscription on half-title erased. Dustwrapper foxed and worn at the spine panel extremities; now protected by non-adhesive plastic wrap.

Too, the small format meant that other poems, from other favourite poets such as Tennyson, Longfellow, or Browning, could be produced in this size and the collected verses could be marketed as a specific series of favourite poetry. For the most part though, the process was an easy way of using up leftover paper, and other material, from larger print jobs: a common feature is the use of mis-matched illustrated endpapers which have little or no relevance to the work which they bracket, or which are used to identify a volume as being part of a series.

1 - Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia, translated into verse by Edward FitzGerald, with Biography and Notes and Twelve Illustrations, Gay & Hancock Ltd., London, nd. (c.1912).

Duodecimo; suede yapp covers, with illustrated endpapers, gilt spine title, and stamped upper board title and decoration; 80pp., top edge gilt, with a black and white frontispiece and 11 plates likewise. Previous owner’s ink inscription to the verso of the frontis.; wear to the cover edges with some minor loss; mild foxing confined mainly to the preliminaries; rear free endpaper has its lower corner missing. Good.

2 - Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Illustrated by Charles Robinson, Collins Clear-Type Press, London, nd.

Sextodecimo; suede yapp covers, with illustrated endpapers and gilt spine title; unpaginated (88pp.), with a tipped in full-colour frontispiece and title page and three plates likewise. An initial blank page excised; foxing to preliminaries; minor wear to the covers. Good.

3 - Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, W.P. Nimmo, Hay & Mitchell, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, nd.

Duodecimo; suede yapp covers, with illustrated endpapers and gilt spine title; 80pp., all edges gilt, with a decorated title page. Retailer’s bookplate on front pastedown; light spotting to preliminaries. Very good.

4 – The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: FitzGerald’s Translation with Notes; illustrated by Alice Ross, W.P. Nimmo, Hay & Mitchell, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, 1911.

Duodecimo; suede yapp covers, with illustrated endpapers, gilt spine title, and stamped upper board title and decoration; 62pp. [xxxipp. + 31pp.], top edge gilt, with a full-colour frontispiece. Spine split; previous owner’s pencil inscription to initial blank page; mild wear and sunning to the wrappers. Good.

Given that these small format printings were intended to be carried about in pockets or purses, it made sense to package them in sturdy bindings, such as suede or leather. The yapp binding, one where the wrapper is not stitched but is allowed to softly drape several millimetres beyond the edges of the text block, is uniquely suited to the small format since it requires no fiddly manipulation and is quick and cheap to produce. This does not mean that elaboration was not employed and there are many examples of gilt titling and embossed and coloured decoration. And of course, standard binding techniques were also employed:

1 - The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám; rendered into English Verse by Edward FitzGerald, The Richards Press Ltd., London, 1943.

Sextodecimo; hardcover, with blind-stamped upper board design and gilt spine and upper board titling, with a red ribbon – torn, but still present; 96pp. Minor offset to the preliminaries; otherwise, very good.

2 - The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia, translated into English Verse by Edward FitzGerald (eighth edition), Methuen & Co. Ltd., Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, 1920.

Sextodecimo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling; 96pp. Shaken; covers well-rubbed and worn; spine split in many places; previous owner’s ink inscription to the front free endpaper; minor offset to endpapers. Good.

Another factor which brought pressure to bear were the World Wars. Paper restrictions meant that publishers needed to be canny about what they produced and how they produced it. Smaller formats with soft covers – usually of cheap materials, sometimes identical to those which comprised the text block – were an easy way of maximising production whilst reducing costs.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Astronomer-Poet of Persia, translated into English by Edward FitzGerald, Gilmour’s Bookshops, Pty. Ltd., George Street, Sydney, NSW, Australia, nd. (c. 1943).

Duodecimo; paperback with staple-sewn printed yapp covers; 24pp. Previous owner’s ink inscription to the inside front cover along with the retailer’s ink stamp; minor foxing to preliminaries; Very good.

A feature of this mass-production – which may be unique to those editions produced in the southern hemisphere – is the wholesale pirating of designs and imagery from better-known versions of the work. Willy Pogany’s stylings, for example, show up again and again in these cheap reproductions – especially the font he created for his 1909 original version – and, despite the fact that it’s George Harrap & Co. that instigate most of these, it’s not always clear that the royalties, or credit, are being directed where they ought to be.

1 – The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám; George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., High Holborn, London, 1957.

Duodecimo; hardcover, full red morocco, with gilt spine titling on a black label with gilt rules and decorations, a blind-stamped upper board, and marbled endpapers; 96pp., opened, top edge gilt, with a full-colour frontispiece and 8 plates likewise, along with many duochrome decorations and designs. Retailer’s bookplate to the front pastedown; previous owner’s ink inscription to the half-title; minor bumping to the corners and some light scraping to the boards. Very good.

2 – The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám; George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., Parker Street, Kingsway, London, nd.

Duodecimo; hardcover, with upper board title and decoration; 96pp., with a full-colour, tipped-in frontispiece and 3 plates likewise, along with many duochrome decorations and designs. Slightly rolled; some softening to the spine extremities; retailer’s ink stamps to the front pastedown; offset to the endpapers; marginal notation in pencil throughout; mild scattered foxing throughout. Good.

3 – The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám; George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., High Holborn, London, 1940.

Duodecimo; hardcover, with upper board titles and decorations; 96pp., with a full-colour, tipped-in frontispiece and 7 plates likewise, along with many duochrome decorations and designs. Slight softening to the spine extremities and mild corner-bumping; retailer’s bookplate to the front pastedown; previous owners’ ink inscriptions to the front free endpaper; faint scattered foxing throughout; some minor offset to the plates; text block edges lightly toned. Good.

4 – The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám; The Leisure Age Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd., Castlereagh Street, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 1946.

Duodecimo; hardcover, quarter-bound in printed card-stock boards with a cloth spine; 88pp., with a duochrome frontispiece and many red and black internal decorations. Shaken; top corners bumped and spine sunned and softened; retailer’s bookplate to the front pastedown; previous owner’s ink inscription to the front free endpaper; some old tape stained and minor surface tears to the pastedowns; text block edges toned and top edge dusted. Good.

This is not to say that there was a dearth of creativity abounding when it came to decorating copies of the Rubaiyat; it’s just that, ever since the days of Elihu Vedder, piracy has been part and parcel of the tale of this work. Despite Pogany’s designs and images being poached or re-used many times over and over (along with those of Gilbert James and René Bull) there were certainly many other illustrators and designers out there trying to leave their mark upon FitzGerald’s translation

1 - The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam; Engravings by George Buday A.R.E., Frederick Muller Ltd., London, 1947.

Duodecimo; hardcover, in decorated papered boards with an upper board title on a white label and illustrated endpapers; 30pp., with many engraved illustrations. Somewhat rolled; boards well-ribbed and spine heel chipped. Good.

2 - The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia, A. & C. Black Ltd., London, 1930.

Octavo; hardcover, with upper board titles and decorations; 80pp., with a monochrome frontispiece and 11 plates likewise. Text block dished; softening to the spine head; a dark stain to the bottom of the upper board; text block edges toned. Very good

3 - Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, A Calendar for the Year 1912, Ernest Nister, London/E.P. Dutton & Co., New York, NY, USA/Angus & Robertson Ltd., Sydney, NSW, Australia; printed in Bavaria; 1912.

No. 2940 of a limited series: duodecimo; hardcover, in papered boards with upper board title and decorations, a illustrated endpapers; unpaginated [28pp.], each page bordered in red and blue with gilt decorations. Previous owner’s ink inscription to the verso of the front free endpaper; mild scattered foxing mainly confined to the preliminaries; some heavy bumps to the board corners and edges. Dustwrapper is heavily foxed and chipped, not affecting the titles; now protected by non-adhesive plastic film. Very good.

Perusing this list, one might come to think that the small Rubaiyat might have faded from view and become a thing of the past: not so. These days the term “gift book” no longer identifies a quarto-sized volume elaborately produced and decorated in time for Christmas; rather, it refers to those palm-sized catchpenny volumes that litter the area surrounding the cash registers at your local bookstore, with titles like “50 hilarious Cricket Jokes!” or “Amazing Photos of Things that Cats do when You’re not at Home!”. Here too, can be found copies of FitzGerald and Omar’s work, even with (despite the litigious times in which we live) some unacknowledged and re-used artwork (this time by René Bull):

The Little Book of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Vega/Chrysalis Books plc., London, 2002.

Sextodecimo; hardcover with illustrated boards; 48pp., decorated, with many full-colour illustrations throughout. Near fine.

I’m often asked what the smallest volume in my collection is and it’s the one at the top of this list, with the dimensions added. This is another early entry into my collection, gifted to me by a friend of my mother who discovered what my obsession was. It’s the smallest one I’ve seen to date, but there might be even teensier ones out there somewhere: the quest continues!