LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward (1888-1935). Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a triumph. [London: Privately Printed], 1926.

4to (249 x 191 mm). Printed in red and black. 66 plates, including frontispiece portrait of Feisal by Augustus John, many colored or tinted, 4 double-page, by Eric Kennington, William Roberts, Augustus John, William Nicholson, Paul Nash and others, THIS COPY WITH ADDITIONAL PLATE BY BLAIR HUGHES-STANTON INSERTED BEFORE TITLE; 4 folding colored maps (linen-reinforced at folds; frontispiece map creased and curled slightly), 58 illustrations in text, one colored, by Roberts, Nash, Kennington, Blair-Hughes-Stanton, Gertrude Hermes and others, initials by Edward Wadsworth. Contemporary brown calf, gilt-ruled borders on sides incorporating interlace ornament at corners, gilt-lettered on front cover "The Seven Pillars," spine in six compartments, each with gilt-ruled panel, gilt-lettered in one, original endpapers by Kennington, side and lower edges mostly uncut, edges gilt, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe (a few minor scuffs, small stain on front cover); morocco folding case.

Provenance: Col. Robert ("Robin") Vere Buxton (presentation inscription from the author); Sir Richard Levinge Bt (Buxton's stepson; sold Sotheby's London, 22 July 1985, lot 294, to:); Spiro Family Collection (sold, Christie’s New York, 26 February 2004, lot 99).

PRIVATELY PRINTED EDITION, limited to about 170 “complete” subscriber's copies, INSCRIBED BY LAWRENCE on p. XIX "Complete copy. 1.XII.26 TES.", with a single additional manuscript correction to the illustration list. AN IMPORTANT PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY LAWRENCE TO HIS FRIEND COL. ROBERT BUXTON, WHO ARRANGED FINANCING OF THE SUBSCRIBER'S EDITION. INSCRIBED BY LAWRENCE on the blank leaf at front: "R.V.B.'s own copy, which he specially deserves, having gone to war and helped to do the show, and then having gone to banking and financed all the history of the show--persuading his innocent Bank to stand an unknown and unprecedented risk, continuing for years. T.E. Shaw. December 1926." He later added to this inscription, "(and not yet ended, indeed. T.E.S. 1931)."

Robert ("Robin") Buxton (1883-1953) was commander of the Imperial Camel Corps, who met Lawrence in Arabia in August 1918. Lawrence guided Buxton and the Camel Corps on the first stage of the journey to their successful attack on Mudawara. He played a major role in the campaign which resulted in September 1918 in the cutting of the railway junction at Deraa, ensuring that no trains could run through to Damascus by the Turks. The two remained close friends after the war and Buxton served as Lawrence's bank manager, and helped finance the subscriber's edition of Seven Pillars. He later served as one of the Trustees of Revolt in the Desert.

The additional plate in this copy is a wood engraving by Blair Hughes-Stanton that appears in only four special copies to illustrate the dedicatory poem "To S.A." It is titled "The Poem," numbered "4/5" and signed by the artist "Blair H-S [19]26". George Bernard Shaw's copy also contained the additional plate. This copy includes the “Prickly Pear” plate, but not the two Paul Nash illustrations called for on pages 92 and 208. In this copy, page XV is mis-paginated as VIII. Clements p. 49 (stating that "only about 100 copies were produced at 30 guineas each"); O'Brien A040. A SUPERB ASSOCIATION COPY.

[With:] Photographic reproduction of pencil portrait of Lawrence by Augustus John; a late 18th- or early 19th-century hand-colored engraving entitled "Ein Kameel Artillerist"; and a (proof?) review of Graves's book Lawrence and the Arabs, corrected and initialled by Buxton.

LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward (1888-1935). Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a triumph. [London: Privately Printed], 1926.