Autograph Letter, signed (“R.F. Burton”), to Leonard Smithers, concerning a bookbinding.
Trieste: Monday August 2, [1886].
Price: $3,000.00
About the item
Two pages across a single sheet folded, with his Arabic letterhead. 1 vols. 12mo. Somewhat faded (old mounting stain on blank verso). Docketed.
Item #241829
Dear Mr. Smithers,
I like your enclosure and have sent it on to Wymans. Please have a look at my idea of a binding. Green & gold for the [?] of the [Brazil?]. Can you put your artist to draw it not to [?] it and let me see how it looks? Of course at my expense. I myself like it. The Brazilian Imperial flag contains the whole affair. Am yrs tr[ul]y,
R.F. Burton
“It is probable that Smithers … saw Burton as a figure of liberality of thought and action, perhaps as even something of a role model” (Nelson).
Burton and Smithers first began to correspond when Smithers subscribed to Burton’s Arabian Nights, and Smithers soon began offering Burton books. At the time of this letter, Bickers published Iraçema & Mauel De Moraes, translations by Isabel and Richard Burton of two Brazilian works prepared during Burton's appointment as British consul in Santos and Saõ Paolo, Brazil. That book was issued in wrappers. Was Burton thinking about a binding for his own copy?
Smithers and Burton later collaborated on a translation of the Priapeia (1888) and Smithers published the posthumous edition of the Carmina of Catullus (1894).
