circa 1946 · Scarce loose-sheet portfolio issue
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
Edward FitzGerald · Illustrated by M. K. Sett
M. K. Sett’s extraordinary Indian interpretation of FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát, preserved complete in its original four-flap portfolio.
This remarkable Bombay production transforms FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát into a sequence of independent works on paper. M. K. Sett—also identified as Mera Kavas Ben Sett—combines calligraphic text, nude figures, masks, peacocks and densely personal symbols in an imagery that is by turns mystical, erotic and playfully subversive.
The portfolio format is essential to the work’s character. Rather than binding image and verse into a conventional book, Taraporevala issued the work as a suite of independent sheets: sixteen printed in red and green and fifteen full-page symbolic illustrations in black and white, accompanied by a twelve-page introductory booklet. Each composition can therefore be handled and contemplated as an individual graphic work.
The publication is undated, but Sett’s reference to two global wars supports a date around 1946. Surviving complete portfolios are scarce: loose sheets were readily separated, framed or lost. This example retains the original dark-green four-flap portfolio, the introductory booklet and the complete sequence of thirty-one loose sheets.
- Publication
- Bombay · D. B. Taraporevala Sons & Co., circa 1946
- Language
- English
- Format
- Large folio · Original dark-green four-flap portfolio · 12-page introductory booklet · 31 loose sheets
- Completeness
- Complete as issued: 12-page introductory booklet, 16 red-and-green illustrated sheets, 15 black-and-white full-page plates, and the original four-flap portfolio.
- Condition
- Pristine and exceptionally well preserved. The original portfolio, flaps, introductory booklet and complete suite of loose sheets survive together; the red-and-green printing retains strong colour and the monochrome plates remain crisp and visually compelling.
- Provenance
- Provenance details available on request.
- Rarity
- An exceptionally scarce complete survival of one of the most distinctive Indian illustrated Rubáiyáts. The undocumented scarcity is intensified by the inherently vulnerable loose-sheet format: individual compositions were readily framed, dispersed or lost.
- Status
- Available
- Price
- USD 1,125