4to., publisher's gilt-decorated vellum over stiff beveled boards, designed and signed by Beardsley. VERY BRIGHT! Of the German edition there were 650 copies, numbers 1-50 of which "in Pergament gebunden,"; (this is copy, although numbered 620, is bound in the DELUXE GILT VELLUM BINDING). The book’s small initials are engraved in wood. The full-page initial plates were printed in collotype on vellum finished paper. The publisher, Bruno Cassirer, always ahead of his time, was responsible for publishing the work of artists such as Lovis Corinth, Max Liebermann, Max Slevogt, et. al.Writing to Smithers on December 19, 1897, Beardsley says about Volpone, "I beg of you not to allow it to be delayed; it will be an important book as you will see from the drawings I am sending you. Its marked departure as illustrative and decorative work from any other arty book published for many years must create some attention [Benkovitz. Aubrey Beardsley: An Account of His Life. pp. 188-90]." "The style of the illustrations suggests seventeenth century engraving...[and] the influence of Mantegna, merged with a more robust baroque manner...He was working on the Volpone drawings... at the time of his death [The Turn of the Century]."See: Lasner, M. S. A Selective Checklist of the Published Work of Aubrey Beardsley. 129B. The Turn of the Century 31.