Arabian Nights Images - H. J. Ford

I have a copy of The Arabian Nights Entertainments selected and edited by Andrew Lang, with numerous illustrations by H. J. Ford, as published by Dover Publications, Inc. in New York in 1969. This edition is described as "an unabridged and unaltered republication of the work originally published by Longmans, Green, and Co., London, in 1898 under the title The Arabian Nights Entertainments." Some of these images also appear, along with those of other artists, in the Reader's Digest Association's Tales from the Arabian Nights, 1991.

Alas, the Dover edition doesn't include "Ali Baba", but there are indeed lots of illustrations here, many or most of which show women in interesting, detailed costuming (right, "Scheherezade, Dinarzade, and the Sultan"). The images are probably closer to "authentic" than most other pictures I've seen--no scantily clad females here! I had a hard time selecting which ones to show.

	The image at left is titled "The girl upsets the frying-pan" from "The Story of the Vizir who was Punished." I like her hair and her hat.
The picture at right is captioned "The man is astonished at the beauty of the porteress" from the "Story of the Three Calenders, Sons of Kings, and of Five Ladies of Bagdad."
	This one is titled "The pricess veils herself when she sees the monkey" from the story of the second calender.
Here, "She cut the lion's body into two pieces" from the same story. I like her hip scarf.

	Here, "The lady shows Alnaschar the coffers packed with gold" from the "Story of the Barber's Fifth Brother."
"The talisman is discovered in one of the jars" from "The Adventures of Prince Camaralzaman and the Princess Badoura."
	This is part of "The beautiful Persian is brought to Khacan" from the story of "Noureddin and the Fair Persian."
From the same story, "Noureddin gets rid of the two little slaves." Here I especially like the lamp over her head.
	And again from the same story, "The fair Persian lights the candles."
Here is "Amina eating the rice" from "The Story of Sidi-Nouman."
	This is a detail from "Parizade shows the singing tree to the Sultan" from "The Story of Two Sisters who were Jealous of their Younger Sister." The designs on her coat are lovely.

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