There was new records for Irish poets Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats at Bonhams in London on May 8. Wilde’s very early poem, ‘Heart’s Yearnings’ written when he was an undergraduate at Magdalen College Oxford in 1874 made £67,250, a world record for a poetic manuscript by the writer. The previous record was £24,000 for a draft poem on Lillie Langtry. A photograph of Wilde taken in New York by Napoleon Sarony in 1882 to publicise the writer’s tour of America made £16,250.
A photograph of William Butler Yeats by the American photographer Alice Boughton taken in New York in 1903 made £18,750 over an estimate of £4,000-5,000. Handwritten draft copies of his poems ‘Are you content’ and ‘The spirit medium’ sold for £15,000. The previous record for a Yeats poem at auction was £5,000. Handwritten works by Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats and portraits of the two made over £130,000 in Part II of the sale of The Roy Davids Collection Part III: Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets. (Click on either image to enlarge it).
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for January 23, 2013).
YEATS, WILLIAM BUTLER (1865-1939) PORTRAIT BY THE AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER ALICE BOUGHTON (1866-1943) SIGNED BY YEATS made £18,750.
WILDE, OSCAR (1854-1900) PORTRAIT BY NAPOLEON SARONY (1812-1896) SIGNED BY WILDE made £16,250.