884. Aristophanes. The Lysistrata of Aristophanes, number 33 of 100 copies, Brian Reade’s copy with his pencil signature on front free endpaper, 8 plates by Aubrey Beardsley, half-title very lightly soiled, original blue boards with paper label on upper cover, uncut, a little rubbed, rebacked, new endpapers, preserved in morocco-backed cloth drop-back box, 4to, 1896.
est. £1800 – £2200
Beardsley's most outrageous erotic book-illustrations. He himself considered them "in a way the best things I have ever done" and it is fortunate that his publisher Smithers did not heed the artist's famous appeal a few days before his death "to destroy all copies of Lysistrata and bad drawings".