[Posted 03.xi.2018]
On 10th November Henry Aldridge and Son Auctioneers of Devizes, Wiltshire, is auctioning an inscribed cigarette case given by Lord Alfred Douglas to Wilde.
The case, which is three-and-a-half inches by three inches, was recovered from Wilde’s hotel room in Paris following his death in 1900 by the hotel owner. It was handed down to the grandson of the hotelier and in 1997 was sold to the late British collector David Gainsborough Roberts.
The pre-sale estimate is ‘between £25,000 to £35,000’
[Posted 21.x.2018]
Pierre Bergé’s copy of Oscar Wilde’s ‘Salomé’ from 1893, inscribed by Wilde to his ‘cher ami’ André Gide, will be sold by Sotheby’s at auction in Paris on 14th December.
[Posted 14.viii.2017]
A Wilde letter, offered for sale by RR Auction, 9th August 2017
ALS, four pages on two adjoining sheets, 4.5 x 7, no date but postmarked January 4, 1893. Letter to Gerald Maxwell, in full: “Thank you so much for your letter. I am greatly distressed to hear you are no longer Lord Darlington—what has really happened? I fear the tour was horribly mismanaged—I wish I had seen you in the part, I feel sure you were admirable. The amateur performance here I have not yet seen, as an East-Wind, not knowing, I suppose, who I was, has given me a cold…What are you going to do now in acting?” In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope addressed in Wilde’s hand. According to a review in The Artist, Maxwell had returned to the Lord Darlington role for performances of Lady Windermere’s Fan by December 1893; in this role, he would have uttered the famous line, ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’ A four-act comedy by Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan had premiered in 1892 at St. James’s Theatre in London. A significant letter associated with his work.
Estimated Price: USD 3,000.00 – 5,000.00
Actual Price: USD 6,487.60
We thank Dr Maureen E. Mulvihill for this information.
[Posted 09.viii.2017]
A vast range of Wilde merchandise can be found at
https://www.etsy.com/search?q=oscar+wilde&explicit=1&page=1
[Posted 08.vii.2017]
Offered on Ebay by ‘Autographes des SièclesAutographes des Siècles‘ for 9,500.00 EUR
[Posted 23.iv.2017]
from the New York auctioneers Swann:
May 16, 2017 Sale 2448 Lot 285
WILDE, OSCAR. The Birthday of the Infanta. Title printed in brown and black. Color-printed frontispiece, 8 plates and 2 illustrations after ‘Alastair’. Erratum slip tipped onto colophon. 4to, contemporary 1/2 morocco by Whitman Bennett, spine gilt, small scuffs to spine tips and joints. Paris: Roger Lescaret for The Black Sun Press/Éditions Narcisse, 1928
Estimate $500 – 750
first edition illustrated by ‘alastair’, limited to 133 copies, this number 39 of 100 copies on Hollande Van Gelder Zonen. Minkoff A13.
[Posted 11.iv.2017]
from the New York auctioneers Swann:
Thursday 4th May Sale 2446 | Lot 426 |
-
WILDE, OSCAR. Autograph Note Signed, to theater manager and playwright Wilson Barrett (“Dear Mr. Barrett”):Estimate $2,000 – $3,000
[Posted 18.xii.2016]
The parfumier Serge Lutens has produced a scent called De Profundis. The 75ml flacon costs 800 €.
[Posted 27.xi.2016]
Sotheby’s announce
La Belle Epoque: 19th & 20th Century Pictures
Click here for details.
[Posted 14.ix.2015]
Some Tite Street furnishings?
http://www.dreweatts.com/cms/pages/lot/13889/218
[Posted 2.iv.2015]
Drouot is the leading Paris auction house. Its Gazette has published a list of Wilde items sold, with links to further information. Please click here.
[Posted 24.iii.2015; revised 01.iv.2015]
Catawiki is a Dutch on-line auction house. In late March 2015, they held a sale of Wilde and related material in 40 lots. Click here for the illustrated list with the hammer prices.
[Posted 21.x.2014]
AN OBLONG PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM, c.1870’s, the red morocco cover stamped ”LADY ARDILAUN”, within gilt-ruled borders, bookplate of Lady Ardilaun, St. Anne’s, containing numerous cartes-de-visite portraits, groups, houses and scenery, mostly annotated (Macroom Castle, Birr Castle, Muckross, Bantry, Ashford, Ross Hill, Lough Cutra, Castle Macgarrett, St. Anne’s, Howth) Twenty nine leaves, each 280 x 340mm, scuffed, covers detached. The most significant of the group photographs showing the house party at Ashford 4th – 12th October 1878, has the young Oscar Wilde wearing tweed plus-fours, seated on the balustrading on the front steps, 210 x 290mm
With an estimate of €5,000.00 – €8,000.00, the hammer came down at €7,000.00
[Posted 21.v.2014; with thanks to Dr Maureen Mulvihill]
Doyle New York held a successful auction of Rare Books & Autographs on April 9, 2014. Selling for a record price was an 1891 first trade edition of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, London: Ward, Lock & Co., consigned by a Titled English Lady. Complete with its excessively rare paper dust jacket, the book sold for $40,625—a world auction record for an uninscribed copy.
[Posted 21.v.2014; with thanks to Danielle Guérin]
18th June 2014
light pencil note (dated 1930) about Nelson on front paste-down, publisher’s mauve cloth gilt, age soiled, 2 corners slightly bumped, preserved in cloth chemise and morocco-backed slipcase [Mason 382].
£40,000 – 60,000
€49,000 – 74,000
