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A finely bound limited-edition collection of The Writings Of Oscar Wilde from 1907 is available at Sotheby’s buy now platform priced at $5,500. The Wilde collection – a set of 15 – was published by Keller-Farmer Co., 1907 and is number 75 out of a limited edition of 200 seta. Profusely illustrated throughout the set is in very good condition.
A bound copy of one of the most elaborate 19th century publications on the Near East leads Fonsie Mealy’s two day rare book and collectors sale on December 12 and 13. This brimful of interest sale, being held this year in Castlecomer, offers rarities like the first edition of the first book by the first Irish author to write for a printing press rather than a scriptorum, important 1916 documents, the first Dublin All Ireland Hurling Championships medal from 1889, a lock of Oscar Wilde’s hair and the 1805 design for Ormond Bridge in Dublin (now named O’Donovan Rossa Bridge) by William Hurst Ashpitel (1776-1852). The design for O’Donovan Rossa Bridge near the Four Courts in Dublin is important because it was William Hurst Ashpitel of London who won the design competition in 1805. The bridge as it stands is as shown in his drawing, but the architects had previously been identified only as George Knowles and James Savage. This piece of architectural history is estimated at €5,000-€7,000.
Among more than 1,000 lots are a variety of GAA medals and other sporting memorabilia like a Bloody Sunday match ticket, a set of 26 views of Dublin by James Malton, a collection of Irish literature, travel plates and books and an unpublished letter by Michael Collins dated July 29, 1922 – just three weeks before his death – in which he states: “I am against shooting down unarmed men in any circumstances”. The first three volumes of The Holy Land, Syria, Idumae, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia by David Roberts and George Croly, published in 1842-43, is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. Duns Scotus Joannes by Maurice O’Fihily, Archbishop of Tuam – an edited commentary on the metaphysics of Aristotle believed to be the work of Duns published in Venice in 1497 – has an estimate of €8,000-€12,000.
Among the other top lots are Dublin’s first All-Ireland medal from 1889 (€7,000-€10,000), a collection of 1916 documents including a rare copy of Irish War News printed during the Rising (€6,000-€9,000), Malton’s Dublin views and a lock of Oscar Wilde’s hair, each estimated at €6,000-€8,000. An edition of Bog Poems by Seamus Heaney illustrated by Barrie Cooke is estimated at €4,000-€6,000, as is a facsimile edition of the Book of Kells, and a copy of An Ideal Husband inscribed by Oscar Wilde.
Among many lots of note is an original Army issued Blueshirt tunic (€1,000-€1,500), a rare dummy wooden training rifle used in the early stages of the War of Independence in North Cork (€300-€500) – this lot highlights the lack of basic equipment by those in Ireland who took on the might of the British Empire just over a century ago and won! – and a cheque written in 1920 by Terence MacSwiney during his brief tenure as martyred Lord Mayor of Cork to the Good Shepherd Convent. He disbursed his entire mayoral salary in charitable donations.The auction will take place at the saleroom in Castlecomer and online next Tuesday and Wednesday at 10.30 am on each day. The catalogue is online and viewing continues in Castlecomer tomorrow afternoon and all day on Monday.
An exhibition to mark the 120th anniversary of the death of Oscar Wilde opens today on a dedicated page of the Bonhams website. Man of our Times will run from February 15-23. There are manuscripts, letters, first editions, association copies and ephemera from the collection of bibliophile and former dealer in Oriental antiques Jeremy Mason. He has been collecting Wilde memorabilia for the past 55 years. Shown here is the bill for flowers at Oscar Wilde’s funeral made out to Robert Ross and amounting to 77 francs. The poet, dramatist and novelist died in a rundown Paris hotel in November 1900.
A questionnaire filled in by a young Oscar Wilde comes up at Sotheby’s online Summer Miscellany sale of Books and Manuscripts which closes on August 4. Recording preferences across 39 questions he responds as follows:
Your idea of happiness? ‘Absolute power over men’s minds, even if accompanied by chronic toothache’
Your idea of misery? ‘Living a poor and respectable life in an obscure village’.
What is your dream? ‘Getting my hair cut’
‘What is your aim in life?’ ‘Success: fame or even notoriety’.
Wilde was in his early twenties when he contributed to the album of “Mental Photographs” in 1877. He was still at Oxford and yet to publish a book, but had already established a keen following. It is signed grandiosely with his full name, ‘Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde’.
It is from the collection of actor and director Steven Berkoff (b.1937), famed for his villainous on-screen roles including General Orlov in the James Bond classic, Octopussy (1983). Berkoff began collecting Oscar Wilde material around the time he directed Wilde’s great tragedy, Salome, in the late 1980s. The show opened to acclaim at The Gate Theatre, Dublin, on the sixtieth anniversary of Salome’s first controversial public viewing there in 1928, and went on to sell out at London’s National Theatre, before travelling to Japan, Germany and beyond. The estimate is £40,000-60,000.
1st edition, 1813, Pride and Prejudice: A Novel in three volumes.
Jane Austen, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde will all feature at Peter Harrington’s stand at the Paris Antiquarian Book Fair from April 22-24 at the Nef du Grand Palais. The Paris Fair, one of the most prestigious of its kind, offers its ever increasing number of visitors a panorama of the highlights of our written heritage, together with a vast selection of engravings and drawings.
Nearly two hundred national and international dealers will attend to unveil thousands of exceptional documents, representative of cultural history.
Among the books at London dealer Peter Harrington is a 1st edition of Pride and Prejudice 1813 priced at £87,500, a 1st edition of Bran Stoker’s Dracula 1897 priced at £17,500 and and a trade issue 1st edition of Oscar Wilde’s Salome 1893 priced at £27,500.
