Volpone: or, The Foxe. With a Critical Essay on the Author by Vincent O'Sullivan, and a Frontispiece, Five Initial Letters, and a Cover Design Illustrative and Decorative by Aubrey Beardsley. Together with an Eulogy of the Artist by Robert Ross by Jonson, Ben - 1898

London: Leonard Smithers, 1898. Beardsley, Aubrey. Quarto. xlv, 193pp. From a total edition of 1,100 copies, this is one of 100 deluxe copies bound in full vellum, with an extra, enlarged set of the five pictorial initials tipped-in. Out of the 24 drawings planned, Beardsley lived only long enough to complete five initials, the frontispiece, and the cover design. There are actually six pictorial initials in the text, appearing at the beginning of the Argument and each of the five acts, but the initials at the beginning of Act Two and Act Four are the same design; the enlarged reproduction of the initial appears only at the beginning of Act Two. The illustrations accompanying the initials are unusual for Beardsley in that they are shaded drawings. Only the frontispiece is a line drawing, with intricate hatching. Fine in vellum boards, which are slightly bowed, with Beardsley's all-over design in gilt. (Lasner 129; Gallatin, pp. 69-70).