8vo. [6], 253pp, [7]. With a half-title and three terminal leaves of publisher's advertisements. Upper board and title design by Aubrey Beardsley. Original publisher's pictorial grey cloth, blocked in peach, lettered in gilt to spine. Lightly rubbed, spine dulled. Occasional small holes/short tears to margins. Pencilled inscription to recto of FFEP: 'From the library of Jessie M. King'.

An early edition of American novelist Henry Harland's (1861-1905) third collection of short stories, Grey Roses, originally published in 1895. Harland first gained fame for his series of highly inflammatory ' Sidney Luska' novels, written under said pseudonym and crudely depicting the American Jewish experience; he later founded and subsequently edited The Yellow Book (1894-97), a leading British literary journal which produced quarterly issues centred on aesthetics, poetry, and art criticism.

The intricate pictorial layout blocked to the upper board of this copy was designed by Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898), eminent English Aesthetic illustrator and author; his drawings, executed in black ink and influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasised the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. Beardsley served as the first art editor of The Yellow Book; his presence on the editorial committee linked the publication in the eyes of many with Oscar Wilde, for whom Beardsley had famously illustrated Salomé.

This copy previously belonged to Scottish illustrator and designer Jessie Marion King (1875-1949), described in 1927 by the Aberdeen Press as 'the pioneer of batik in Great Britain'.