Oscar Wilde Sale Results From Sothebys

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Oscar Wilde is one of the greatest icons of modern literature. One of the wittiest, most quoted authors in the English language, Wilde both delighted and outraged his contemporaries. He was the centre of the late Victorian aesthetic movement, whose circle included most of the major writers and artists of the day, but also a tragic figure whose notorious trial and imprisonment made him a social pariah.

A photograph of Oscar Wilde, inscribed to Robert Ross, 1890s

The sale – the most important Oscar Wilde collection remaining in private hands – will offered over 100 lots of important first editions, inscribed presentation copies, letters, manuscripts, original photographs and extraordinary ephemera. The collection abounds in highlights and even includes important materials relating to Wilde’s lover Lord Alfred Douglas (‘Bosie’) – notably the unique set of corrected page proofs of his controversial and unpublished book about Wilde.

If a single item may serve to illustrate the quality of the collection, let it be the Tite Street catalogue for the sale of Wilde’s household property. Few items could more vividly illustrate the pathos and poignancy of Wilde’s situation at that time. Having lost his lawsuit against the Marquess of Queensberry, and with his hugely successful plays An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest taken off the stage in the wake of the scandal, Wilde was forced to sell virtually all his precious books, pictures, furniture, china and other domestic goods to cover the costs of litigation. It is only when one confronts such a rare and detailed contemporary record as this that the full import and drama of these events comes into focus.

Sale Highlights