Concept and Art

The Portrait Edition is our ultimate edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oversized and limited to only 26 lettered and signed copies, it is packed with numerous features that elevate its status far beyond that of a mere book. This approach allowed us to achieve our main goal with this edition—to turn the book into a piece of art.

Creative concept for this edition revolves around Dorian’s degradation, which is driven by his bad decisions and indulging lifestyle. Therefore, the front cover features his portrait printed on painting canvas with Dorian elements made via lenticular printing to produce the effect of an ageing and rotting Dorian. This way he is constantly shifting and changing depending on where you stand, going from young and beautiful, over old and deteriorated, all the way to rotten and spoiled. The transitions are made to be fluent and subtle, in order to build upon the portrait and not to take away from it.

Once you open the book, you are met with handmade marbled endpapers made by the legendary Freya Scott, who has crafted these specially for this edition. The goal was to create something extravagant and worthy of Dorian’s name and her creation bridges the covers and the art inside perfectly. When you flip the first page to reach the title, you will notice it is written by hand in shimmering ink, which causes numerous colours to be visible, depending on the light and whatever pigments were picked up by the pen.

As you go through the story, you will encounter numerous things that emphasise Dorian’s fall from grace: illustrated drop caps are rotting away with each chapter and each illustration represents a moment of Dorian’s degradation; a moment where his decisions ate away at his soul. And when you need a break from reading, you can mark where you left off with a bookmark in a shape of Dorian’s silver mirror. All the illustrations, including the front cover, and the bookmark were done by the extremely talented Vedran Klemens

Since Dorian is quite fond of attention, it only made sense to design something that will allow him to be put on display for everyone to admire. Therefore, this edition comes in a custom designed case which is both a book case and picture frame at the same time. It allows you to place the book neatly inside it and hang it on the wall (or lean it next to one).

As previously mentioned, the whole run has only 26 lettered copies, with a few additional copies marked with roman numerals for the key participants of the projects, making this a true rarity.

You can see more pictures of the book and the illustrations in our gallery.
Photography: Dino Šertović.

Production and Materials

For this edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray only the best materials were used, because Mr. Gray wouldn’t have it any other way, while numerous handmade details only added to complexity of this edition.

The frame on the case is made from a real picture frame, where full wood was used in production before it was varnished and detailed with gold leaf foil. The case can be easily opened both when hanging on the wall or when laid down on a surface. Inside of the case is covered with plush to ensure that the book will be safe and cozy inside.

The book is bound in the finest black calfskin leather, then stamped with gold foil for decorative elements. The cover illustration is printed on painting canvas, while Dorian was made via lenticular printing in three phases over five points.

Marbled endpapers were handmade using numerous colours, some of them metallic, to achieve high shine and multitude of colours. The book was printed offset on Fedrigoni Savile Row 140g paper, giving it a rich feel full of texture. Finally, it was smyth sewn with a green thread, then glued afterwards to provide for maximum durability. As always, to ensure the best reading experience, we used the beautiful and versatile Brioni typeface.

The bookmark was produced on a special paper with a silver shine that occasionally shines with gold tones, depending on the angle of the light. A mirror foil was added in the middle to produce the effect of an actual mirror.

All of these details make this perhaps an ultimate edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Shipping

Since we put a lot of effort into creation of our books, we like to see them delivered safe and sound (and fast!) straight into your hands. That is why we ship with DHL Express, which means the books will be trackable at all times and they’ll arrive straight into your hands (unless you state otherwise). This also means they should arrive within 7-10 business days at the latest, but they’ll usually arrive within five business days, depending at what time of the day you made your order.

Please be aware that although books are not subject to customs fees in many countries, they might be in yours. This may mean they’ll be held at customs for inspection, delaying the delivery time, and you may be charged a customs fee or import tax or similar. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about customs clearance – customs rules of each country make the importer (the buyer—you!) responsible for these fees. Some of our customers have managed to reduce these fees by opting to do the import documentation themselves at the customs office instead of letting the courier (DHL) do it for them.