Lot 231: BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (1872-1898), illustrator -- BARING, Maurice (1874-1946), editor. The

BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (1872-1898), illustrator -- BARING, Maurice (1874-1946), editor. The Cambridge A.B.C.. Cambridge: Elijah Johnson, 8 June-12 June 1894.

Nos 1-4 in one volume. 4° (190 x 137mm). Contemporary red half morocco, spine lettered in gilt and tooled with a tulip motif, top edge gilt, two original pictorial front wrappers after Beardsley bound in. Provenance: presentation copy from Baring (wrapper to the first issue inscribed 'With the author's compts:' at upper margin) -- Viscount Esher (bookplate). With a loosely inserted 3pp. secretarial letter from Baring, 8°, dated Hospital of St. John & St. Elizabeth, London, 14 March [19]38, signed 'Maurice' in pencil, replying to 'My dear H.R. [?]& D.P.' by describing his medical condition, listing rare works of his own belonging to Lady Lovat that had been saved from a fire at Beaufort Castle, but regretting he does not know the whereabouts of a copy of "The Puppet Show of Memory," and apologising that 'my brain is not what it was & only functions two days a week.'

EDITOR'S PRESENTATION COPY. Beardsley's design was used on all four numbers of this student magazine produced by Maurice Baring (the 'B' of the title) in conjunction with Richard Austen ('A') and H. Warre Cornish ('C'). Among the satires and quips is the poem, 'In a Second-hand Bookshop' (p. 52). Lasner notes that some issues were bound up in green cloth with the design on the front cover. SCARCE. Lasner Aubrey Beardsley 70.

AFTERNOON SESSION AT 2.30 P.M.

OSCAR WILDE AND HIS CIRCLE

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