| Description | A frontispiece for the book ‘THE MODERN ARABIAN NIGHTS BY ARTHUR à BECKETt & LINLEY SAMBOURNE’, published by ‘BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO, WHITEFRIARS.’ The writing is all elaborate, ‘THE’ being spelt with birds, 'MODERN' in lights, ‘ARABIAN’ with the pipe emerging from a pot of sheesha and ‘NIGHTS’ looking similar to Arabic characters. In the centre sits a caricature of a cross-legged portly English gentleman smoking the sheesha pipe. He wears a turban and carries a curved umbrella (parodying an Eastern sword) against a backdrop of stars. On the left of the page is a pencil sketch for the design along with scattered notes. |