Lot 219: First editions of four plays by Oscar Wilde

WILDE, OSCAR

An Ideal Husband. London: Smithers, 1899. First edition. One of 1,000 copies; Together with The Importance of Being Earnest. London: Smithers, 1899. First edition. One of 1,000 copies; Together with Lady Windermere's Fan. London: Smithers & Lane, 1893. First edition. One of 1,000 copies; Together with A Woman of No Importance. London: Smithers, 1894. First edition. One of 500 copies. The four volumes in their original mauve cloth, decorated with gilt designs after Charles Ricketts. 8 x 6 inches (20.5 x 15 cm); various paginations. Toning, soling and some wear to the delicate cloth bindings.
Oscar Wilde's four major plays are present here. All are in first edition and in the bindings of issue. The copy here of Lady Windemere's Fan bears the bookplate of Christopher Sclater Millard, the author of the first bibliography of Wilde, who was arguably the first major collector of Wildeana. It has an additional neat but extensive annotation regarding the rarity of the book by Richard C. Jackson F.S.A. Jackson was a collector of some note and wildly eccentric figure, who, when he died in 1923, was reportedly found dead in his richly-furnished mansion in Camberwell "holding a partly eaten orange in his hand," a pleasing aesthetic touch. He was reported to be a lifelong friend of Walter Pater, and claimed to be the model for Pater's Marius the Epicurean. He also spoke of familial connection to the circles of Charles Lamb and William Blake. However, as pointed out in a fine article by the Blake scholar G. E. Bentley Jr,, he also appears to have been a fantasist of the first order. See .