'The Beasts of Tarzan', First Edition, By Edgar Rice Burroughs -A.L.Burt & Co, New York, 1916. With Illustrations by J. Allen St. John, Bound In Full Green Morocco Leather, With Gold Tooling by Sangorski & Sutcliffe for Asprey of Bond St.London

Edgar Rice Burroughs - The Beasts of Tarzan, w/ Illustrations by J. Allen St. John, first edition, A.L.Burt & Co, New York, 1916, rebound in full green morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Overall in excellent condition.

The Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs is a must-read for all literature and fiction enthusiasts. This original 1916 first edition hardcover book is a collector's item with special attributes that make it unique. It takes readers on a thrilling adventure with the iconic character Tarzan in North America, filled with action and suspense. The publisher A L Burt has done a fantastic job printing this book in English, and it's a great addition to any collection.

The story begins a year after the conclusion of the previous book, Tarzan (Lord Greystoke) and Jane have had a son, whom they have named Jack. Tarzan has spent much time building an estate home on the Waziri lands in Uziri, Africa, but has returned to his ancestral estate in London for the rainy season.

Tarzan's adversaries from the previous novel, Nikolas Rokoff and Alexis Paulvitch, escape prison and kidnap the Greystoke heir. Their trap is elaborate and insidious, leading both Tarzan and Jane to be kidnapped as well. Rokoff exiles Tarzan on a jungle island, informing him that Jack will be left with a cannibal tribe to be raised as one of their own, while Jane's fate is to be left to his imagination.

Using his jungle skill and primal intelligence, Tarzan wins the help of Sheeta, the vicious panther, a tribe of great apes led by the intelligent Akut, and a native warrior, Mugambi. With their aid, Tarzan reaches the mainland and begins a lengthy pursuit to find Jane (who is actively engineering her own extrication) and Jack.

Sangorski & Sutcliffe is a firm of bookbinders established in London in 1901. It is considered to be one of the most important bookbinding companies of the 20th century, famous for its luxurious jeweled bindings that used real gold and precious stones in their book covers.

Sangorski & Sutcliffe was established by Francis Sangorski (1875–1912) and George Sutcliffe (1878–1943). They had met in 1896 at a bookbinding evening class taught by Douglas Cockerell at the London County Council's Central School of Arts and Crafts.

In 1898, Sangorski and Sutcliffe each won one of the ten annual craft scholarship awards, giving them £20 a year for three years to continue their training as apprentice bookbinders. They were employed at Cockerell's own bindery, and began to teach bookbinding at Camberwell College of Art. They were laid off in 1901 after a coal strike caused an economic slump, and they decided to set up on their own in a rented attic in Bloomsbury, starting on 1 October 1901. They soon moved to Vernon Place, and then, in 1905, to Southampton Row.

Sangorski's elder brother, Alberto Sangorski (1862–1932),1 worked for the firm. He became an accomplished calligrapher and illuminator, working for Rivière from 1910.

They quickly revived the art of jewelled bookbindings, decorating their sumptuous multi-colour leather book bindings with gold inlay and precious and semi-precious jewels. They were commissioned to create a most luxurious binding of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the front cover of which was adorned with three golden peacocks with jewelled tails and surrounded by heavily tooled and gilded vines, that was sent on the ill-fated RMS Titanic in 1912. The book, known as the Great Omar, sank with the ship and has not been recovered. Shortly afterwards, Sangorski drowned.

Sutcliffe continued the firm, which became recognised as one of the leading bookbinders in London. The bindery moved to Poland Street, and managed to survive through the First World War, the Great Depression, the Second World War, and post-war austerity. It also created miniature books for Queen Mary's Dolls' House.

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