303 résultats
1899159879London: Leonard Smithers and Co 1899. Wilde's favourite play with an appealing association First edition one of 1000 copies printed presented in the year of publication from Lady Lewis the wife of Wilde's solicitor to their mutual friend the actress Elizabeth Robins. Lewis has inscribed the front free endpaper: "With love from Beth. Lewis. Aug. 6th 99 Vulpera"; Robins's ownership inscription is on the half-title: "Elizabeth Robins from Lady Lewis Waldhaus Tarasp Switzerland". Waldhaus Vulpera was a popular Grand Hotel in the Swiss Alps. Elizabeth Lewis née Eberstadt was the second wife of Wilde's long-time friend and legal adviser Sir George Lewis 1833-1911. A discreet and astute solicitor he advised Wilde on various occasions and on his request represented Lord Alfred Douglas in 1983 to recover an incriminating letter from a blackmailer. Richard Ellman Wilde's biographer mentions a series of letters sent by Wilde to her during his lecture tour of North America in which he boasted about his various successes. The American actress and feminist Elizabeth Robins 1862-1952 is best known for her play Votes for Women! which is credited with inaugurating suffrage drama. Wilde met her for the first time at a reception at Lady Seton's House in 1888 and subsequently used his influence to help her gain success on the London stage. He gave her feedback on her performances throughout her career. Oscar Wilde's third comedy An Ideal Husband premiered at the Haymarket on 3 January 1895 preceding his sensational trial but was not published until after his release from prison. In a letter to his publisher Leonard Smithers Wilde wrote that "I really think it reads the best of my plays" cited in Nelson p. 392. Quarto. Original pink cloth flat spine lettered in gilt leaf motifs to spine and covers designed by Charles Shannon edges untrimmed. Spine and head of rear cover sunned cloth otherwise bright spine ends and tips slightly rubbed and bumped tiny mark to front cover offsetting to endpapers a few spots of foxing to half-title otherwise generally clean. A very good fresh copy. Mason p. 433; James G. Nelson Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the Careers of Beardsley Wilde Dowson 2000. hardcover
18930036073Paris and Londres: Librairie de L'Art Independant and Elkin Mathew et John Lane 1893. First Edition. Hardcover Hardcover. Very Good Condition. 20.5cm x 15cm. 84 2 pages. Half leather marbled papered boards gilt lettering and decoration top edge gilt marbled endpapers. Text is in French. First edition one of 600 copies the title page device by Felicien Rops. MASON 348. This copy rebound in a fine signed art nouveau binding by Hatchards Piccadilly without the wrappers with a plentiful quantity of blank leaves at the rear to allow for the binding design. Text is in French. Some discolouration to spine. Very minor rubbing to fore-edge corners lower tail fore-edge corner lightly pushed. Very minor foxing. Category: Theatre & Plays; Fine Bindings; Foreign Language::French; French Language; Antiquarian & Rare. Inventory No: 0036073. BZDB407 Theatre & Plays; Fine Bindings; Foreign Language::French; French Language; Antiquarian & Rare. Unbranded Oscar Wilde Salome. Drame en un acte. Librairie de L'Art Independant and Elkin Mathew et John Lane hardcover
1894wld44London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane. G : in good condition. Rebacked. Cover rubbed. Page edges browning. Hinge at title cracked. 1894. Limited Edition 500. Blue hardback cloth cover. 220mm x 160mm 9" x 6". 67pp 15pp plates. 10 plates by Aubrey Beardsley. . Elkin Mathews & John Lane hardcover
18991411385London: Leonard Smithers and Co 1899. First Trade Edition Limited #208/1000. Hardcover. Octavo 151 pages. In Good plus condition. Bound in publisher's pale purple cloth with gilt leaves to boards gilt lettering to spine. Fading to spine and boards. Some general shelfwear. Chipping to head and tail of spine. Bumping to corners and extremities. Spine cocked. Front pastedown with glue stains from a removed bookplate. Front free endpaper with bookplate. Shelved showcase. 'The Importance of Being Earnest' was a success on stage when it opened in 1895 but closed after 86 performances due to Wilde's arrest. It is generaly considered one of his best works. This Trade edition was published in 1899 after he was released from Reading Gaol and residing in France. He died the following year. 1411385. Shelved Dupont Bookstore. Leonard Smithers and Co hardcover
1894149906London: John Lane at the Sign of the Bodley Head 1894. Attractively bound First edition trade issue one of 500 copies printed; a further 50 copies were also issued on handmade paper. An attractively bound copy with the bookplate to the rear pastedown of the eccentric sportsman and artist William Eden 1849-1915 father of future Prime Minister Anthony Eden and who like Wilde had a dispute with the artist James McNeill Whistler. Eden excelled at a range of sports from boxing and horse riding to shooting "the epitome of the sporting squire" ODNB a member of several clubs and well known in London society. So too was he a keen amateur artist and aesthete building a fine collection of paintings and was a member of the aristocratic group The Souls. The contrast between the sportsman and the aesthete has been noted: "There was little that was harmonious in his nature and the aesthetic side warred with and exacerbated rather than complemented his athleticism making him a bored sportsman and a militant aesthete. As he grew older the world's failure to correspond to his ideals drove him to furious rages and the debased taste of humanity confirmed his atheism - for how could a God have made such a botch of things" ibid. His dispute with Whistler was occasioned when Eden commissioned a portrait of his wife which Whistler executed but then kept the cheque without handing over the painting leading to a legal case which resulted in Whistler's book The Baronet and the Butterfly 1899. Wilde too had a lengthy rivalry with Whistler out of the courts but with very public sparring. Small quarto 204 x 148 mm. Early 20th-century pink straight-grain morocco for Hatchards of Piccadilly spine lettered in gilt pink cloth sides marbled endpapers top edge gilt pink silk page marker. Bound without initial blank. A few pencilled lines in margins. Spine lightly sunned very light rubbing at extremities slight split in hinge preceding dedication leaf contents clean; an excellent copy. Mason 364. hardcover
1898183630London: Leonard Smithers 1898. For he who lives more lives than one more deaths than one must die First edition one of 800 unnumbered copies printed on handmade paper; a further 30 copies on japon were published simultaneously. The first edition sold out rapidly and a second edition was issued within weeks. Octavo. Original white quarter cloth spine lettered in gilt light brown cloth sides edges untrimmed leaves unopened. Housed in a custom yellow cloth chemise and quarter calf with yellow cloth slipcase. Spine lightly toned and bumped at head covers bright text clean. A near-fine copy. Mason 371. hardcover
1895015568: Samuel FRENCH 1895. Hardcover. Good. B00K: Good/Fair/ 1895 . B00K: Good/Fair/ $3670.15 Reduced from. the IMPORTANCE of BEING EARNEST. a Trivial Comedy for Serious People. WILDE Oscar Samuel FRENCH 1895 First Date Played At St. James's Theatre UnStated Edition Small H/c Sun Browning On A Green Cloth Spine With No Title Small Sized Hard Cover B00K: Good/Fair/ Shelf Edge And Corner Wear. 52 Numbered Pages Browning From Aging In Delicate Condition. Spine Separating In Front And Towards Rear. Still Attached. Some Notations Throughout. Title Appears To Be Hand Written On Front Cover In Black Ink. D/j: None. No Odors No Writing No Names No Stains No Book Plate Not X~Library. = Description Applies To This B00K Only Which Is A Historically Significant Treasure From The Past Hard To Find Will Be Packaged And Shipped = Carefully To Avoid Shipping Damage And Will Make It An Excellent Addition To Your Own Personal Library Collection Or As A Gift For The Discriminating Reader / Collector/. WORLD WIDE SHIPPING AVAILABLE. <br/> <br/> Samuel FRENCH hardcover
189859504New York:: Brentano's 1898. First US edition first printing. publisher's olive cloth decorated in colors; preserved in a custom quarter morocco folding box. . Cloth lightly rubbed at edges joints and corners; 1899 private library book label on pastedown; but an attractive tight and sound copy. . 12mo. Horodisch pp. 72-75. Brentano's, hardcover
18952221665<p>First edition. 8 1/2" x 6 1/2". Original brown wrappers stamped in red lower right corner of upper cover replaced uncut and mostly unopened. Very good. 98 pages. No signatures or bookplates. Enclosed in a plum half morocco slipcase.</p><p>Printed by The Chiswick Press.</p><p>Mason 367 - only 50 copies were printed.</p> Privately Printed paperback books
18991099238vo. London: Leonard Smithers 1899. 8vo 213 1 imprintpp. Original salmon cloth stamped in gold one corner creased slightest of soiling to covers ink signature at front “Winifred M.F. Carritt Christmas 1900â€. Blue quarter morocco slipcase. § First edition one of 1000 copies. “Although Wilde's third play opened in 1895 it was not published until four years later and after Wilde had been released from prison. The success of The Ballad of Reading Gaol persuaded Wilde to publish his last two plays the other being The Importance of Being Ernest. All three were published by Leonard Smithers one of very few remaining publishers prepared to handle Wilde's work.†Sotheby’s. Mason 385. Leonard Smithers hardcover books
18952221665<p>First edition. 8 1/2" x 6 1/2". Original brown wrappers stamped in red lower right corner of upper cover replaced uncut and mostly unopened. Very good. 98 pages. No signatures or bookplates. Enclosed in a plum half morocco slipcase.</p><p>Printed by The Chiswick Press.</p><p>Mason 367 - only 50 copies were printed.</p> Privately Printed paperback
18981262071898. First Edition. WILDE Oscar. The Ballad of Reading Gaol by C.3.3. London: Leonard Smithers 1898. Slim octavo original half cream cloth with cinnamon cloth boards uncut. $3600.First edition one of only 800 copies printed on handmade paper.Inspired by his prison experience and comprised in part by a plea for penal reform The Ballad of Reading Gaol was the last work Wilde completed before his death in 1900. ""In his comedies the miscreants were always pardoned but in the Ballad while ultimately forgiven they are treated vindictively by their fellows who are equally guilty There is no doubt that Wilde had once again touched a great subject and left his fingerprints on it once read it is never forgotten"" Ellmann 532-34. Mason 371. A few pinholes to two preliminary leaves interior otherwise fine. One tiny inkspot to front cover spine slightly toned. A handsome extremely good copy of this scarce first edition. hardcover
1899182530London: Leonard Smithers and Co. 1899. I really think it reads the best of my plays First edition trade issue one of 1000 copies. Wilde's political comedy premiered at the Haymarket on 3 January 1895 and ran until 6 April. His arrest the day before the production closed precipitated his "utter social destruction" ODNB and the play was not published in book form until two years after his release from prison. An Ideal Husband led George Bernard Shaw to hail Wilde as "our only thorough playwright. He plays with everything: with wit with philosophy with drama with actors and audience with the whole theatre" Saturday Review 12 January 1895. Wilde himself wrote to the publisher stating that "I really think it reads the best of my plays" cited in Nelson p. 392. The edition also included 100 signed copies on large paper and 12 on Japanese vellum reserved for presentation. Small quarto. Original pink linen with gilt floral motifs after designs by Charles Shannon spine lettered in gilt fore and bottom edges uncut. Bookplate of the collector and Steinbeck bibliographer Adrian Homer Goldstone 1897-1977. Spine cocked and sunned extremities bumped occasional patches of rubbing contents foxed. A very good copy. Mason 385. James G. Nelson Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the Careers of Beardsley Wilde Dowson 2000. hardcover
1898180349London: Leonard Smithers 1898. Unusual in a fine contemporary binding First edition one of 800 copies printed on handmade paper. This copy is beautifully presented and includes the well-preserved wrappers at the rear. At the insistence of his publishers Wilde employed a pseudonym for fear of the negative effect his name would have on the poem's sales. "C.3.3." derives from Wilde's cell in Reading Gaol - the third cell on the third landing of Gallery C. The first edition of which another 30 copies on japon were also issued sold out rapidly. A second edition was printed within weeks. Octavo 220 x 135 mm. Contemporary brown crushed morocco by Rivière spine lettered in gilt with raised bands compartments tooled with floral design French fillet to boards gilt inner dentelles dark green coated endpapers top edge gilt fore and bottom edges uncut original wrappers bound in. Label sometime removed from front pastedown rear blanks lightly toned from wrappers. A fine copy. Mason 371. hardcover
1899355490724400London 1899. First Edition. Hard Cover. London: Leonard Smithers 1899. First Edition. First Printing. This is the first impression which was limited to 1000 copies this being # 33. Publisher's original pale salmon binding with gilt leaf stamping to panels. 152 pages. This copy is about VG with the usual slight fading to the gilt leaf. Boards clean and tidy with no noteworthy issues. There is a book-plate to the front paste-down of "Richard Buckle". No previous owner inscriptions. The spine has been sympathetically and skilfully re-backed in brown morocco with the title and author in gilt with leaf stamps blind-stamped in three places. The interior of the book is clean tidy and tightly bound with minor foxing to several pages. Photographs/scans available upon request. hardcover
1894109920Small 4to. London: John Lane at the Bodley Head 1894. Small 4to xiv 154 1 pp. Original salmon buckram covers with gilt-stamped decorations gilt top backstrip lettered and stamped in gilt scattered foxing a lovely copy enclosed in a quarter blue morocco slipcase. § First edition though there were 15 copies printed for the production of the play in New York. This play contains some of Wilde’s best quips - with especially astute comments on the nature of society. A hard book to find in perfect condition -- this copy has been boxed for about 100 years and is almost flawless. On the front pastedown is a printed note: “This book is now published by John Lane at the Bodley Head in Vigo St London Wâ€. Millard 365. John Lane at the Bodley Head hardcover books
1894182536London: John Lane at the Sign of the Bodley Head 1894. Mr Oscar Wilde is not in the house First edition one of 500 trade copies. The play's opening show was met with applause for the actors and boos for the playwright causing Wilde to announce from behind a curtain "Ladies and gentlemen I regret to inform you that Mr Oscar Wilde is not in the house" Ellmann p. 381. Wilde's opulent production used "the market forces of luxury dressmaking to comment upon the worlds of his Haymarket patrons. Audiences in the stalls and boxes continued to be both flattered and vexed by the antics of their on-stage doubles while viewers in the upper galleries enjoyed the additional spectacle of fashionable Society catching its likeness in Wilde's cunningly set mirrors" Kaplan p. 252. The play premiered at Haymarket Theatre on 19 April 1893 and ran until 16 August for 113 performances. A further 50 large paper copies were also issued. Small quarto. Publisher's 16-page catalogue dated March 1894 at rear. Original pink linen with gilt floral decorations by Charles Shannon spine lettered in gilt fore and bottom edges untrimmed. Housed in a custom green cloth slipcase and chemise. Faint marks and fading to spine ends slightly bumped cloth lightly rubbed contents toned as usual. A very good copy. Mason 364. Richard Ellmann Oscar Wilde 1988; Joel Kaplan "Wilde on the Stage" in Peter Raby ed. The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde 1997. hardcover
1898162864London: Leonard Smithers 1898. Written from exile in France First and limited edition one of 800 unnumbered copies printed on handmade paper; a further 30 copies on japon were also issued. Wilde published this work under the pseudonym "C.3.3." after his cell in Reading Gaol the third cell on the third landing of Gallery C. The first edition sold out rapidly and a second edition was printed within weeks. Octavo. Original white quarter cloth spine lettered in gilt yellow cloth sides fore and bottom edges untrimmed. Housed in a custom pink morocco backed slipcase and chemise. Bookplate of Douglass Cooper to front pastedown. Spine ends bumped a little soiling to cloth endpapers lightly browned and foxed else a near-fine copy in unusually nice condition. Mason 371. hardcover
189916609JLondon: Leonard Smithers 1899. First Edition. Bookplate of noted writer and book collector Carroll Atwood Wilson. Laid in this copy are two printed in-house reports sheets from the Theatre Royal Haymarket from the play’s first run of 124 performances. Handwritten in ink are the sums tallying the box office receipts for the 93rd and 94th performances of An Ideal Husband on March 23 1895. The matinee brought in 82 pounds and the evening performance totaled 144 pounds. Remarkably this copy still has the pages unopened and intact. Slight chipping at top of spine else very good. Leonard Smithers unknown
18991300991899. First Edition. WILDE Oscar. An Ideal Husband. London: Leonard Smithers and Co. 1899. Octavo original lavender cloth gilt uncut; housed in a custom chemise and slipcase. $4800.Limited first edition one of 1000 unnumbered copies a very nice copy in original decorative cloth designed by Charles Shannon.Wilde's play premiered in January 1895 to an audience that included the Prince of Wales and was an immediate success. Four months later Wilde was in disgrace following his arrest for soliciting homosexual acts and his name was removed from the play's marquee similarly it appears nowhere in this edition. The play closed shortly thereafter and did not appear in print until this first edition. Mason 385. Text about-fine cloth spine with slight fading small mark near base. An extremely good copy. hardcover
1899ST19154London: Leonard Smithers and Co 1899. FIRST EDITION. ONE OF 1000 COPIES. 215 x 155 mm. 8 3/8 x 6". 8 p.l. 213 1 pp. <br/> Original lavender cloth decorated with gilt flourishes smooth spine with gilt lettering edges untrimmed and ENTIRELY UNOPENED. Mason 385. ◆Spine slightly sunned as virtually always but no wear to joints or hinges and in all A REMARKABLY WELL-PRESERVED OBVIOUSLY UNREAD COPY because unopened and without the soiling this edition is almost always found with.<br/> <br/> This is an exceptionally fine copy of Wilde's second hit play successful like his other witty comedies but with at least slightly more serious social and political content. Opening at the Haymarket Theatre in 1895 and continuing for 124 performances it features as the title character a prominent politician in danger of losing his reputation because of a potentially damaging letter that the play's villain threatens to expose if the husband refuses to support the former's corrupt political agenda. The play moves its characters toward a more ideal moral standard as they struggle with dishonesty hypocrisy double standards materialism and corruption of social and political life. But none of this weighs down Wilde's witty banter as the play suggests after all that even when there is a pretense of the embrace of moral probity nobody is ever that good or is even expected to be. The work is dedicated to the Irish-American writer Frank Harris who is said to have given Wilde the idea to use insider trading which related to Disraeli's financial machinations as part of the plot here. Covering the play for the "Saturday Review" George Bernard Shaw declared Wilde 1854-1900 "our only thorough playwright. He plays with everything: with wit with philosophy with drama with actors and audience with the whole theatre." On nearly all copies of this edition the publisher's binding is now encountered in unappetizing condition; finding our unopened copy--with virtually none of the soiling almost always seen with the four Wilde plays bound in this lavender cloth--is piece of very good fortune. Leonard Smithers and Co unknown
1898282548London: Smithers 1898. First. hardcover. very good. Slim 8vo mustard cloth backed in white with gilt lettering. London: Leonard Smithers 1898. Limited First Edition.<br/><br/> One of 800 copies printed on hand-made paper on one side only. Inscribed on title page; "I.O. from F.A.S. Guilsborough Hall." A very good copy with some bubbling of the cloth and light soil. Irene Osgood later the wife of R.H. Sherard author of the life of Oscar Wilde was a novelist. This book was given to her by Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham Preserved in an attractive1/4 leather slipcase with an elaborately gilt spine.<br/><br/> Smithers unknown books
18982708London: Leonard Smithers 1898. First edition. Fine. One of 800 copies on handmade Van Gelder paper. A Fine copy without the fading or soiling typical of this book. Pages unopened. Housed in a custom case and chemise. Wilde's later work based on his two years hard labor at Reading Gaol for "gross indecency." Published under the pseudonym "C. 3. 3." for his cell block because the publisher feared having his name on the work would adversely affect sales. <br/><br/>The poem is based on a fellow inmate convicted of murdering his wife and generated one of the great lines from Wilde "Yet each man kills the thing he loves." Wilde continued to revise his plays until his death in 1900 but said that he had lost the joy of writing and would write no other new works. An excellent copy housed in a handsome slipcase with chemise. Fine. Leonard Smithers unknown books
1899182434London: Leonard Smithers and Co 1899. An unusual binding First edition number 373 of 1000 copies. This copy is in a contemporary vellum binding in a style that was popular at the end of the nineteenth century similar to those produced by both the Kelmscott Press and the Riccardi Press. This copy was part of the standard issue in cloth; a further 100 signed large paper copies and 12 signed copies on japon were produced. Wilde's last play opened to great acclaim on Valentine's Day 1895 but was withdrawn after Wilde's failed libel suit against Lord Queensbury led to his arrest in April of that year. The play was not published in book form until February 1899 after Wilde's release from prison. Quarto 210 x 155 mm. Contemporary limp vellum spine lettered in gilt green silk ties top edge gilt others untrimmed. Natural variation to vellum light foxing mostly to edges. A very good copy. Mason 381. hardcover
1899186847London: Leonard Smithers and Co 1899. Wilde's greatest play in the original cloth First edition out of series from an issue of 1000 numbered copies. Wilde's last play opened to great acclaim on Valentine's Day 1895 but was withdrawn after Wilde's failed libel suit against Lord Queensbury led to his arrest in April of that year. It was not published in book form until February 1899 after Wilde's release from prison. The play was published in a standard issue of 1000 unsigned copies 100 signed large paper copies and 12 signed copies on japon. Quarto. Original pink cloth spine lettered in gilt stylised leaf motifs by Charles Shannon in gilt to spine and covers edges uncut and untrimmed. Spine toned and a little bumped nick to head of spine occasional foxing mostly to outer leaves. A very good copy. Mason 381. hardcover