BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (1872-1898) - photo 1

BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (1872-1898)

Lot 78
13.02.2025 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1362989
Lot 78 | BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (1872-1898)
Estimate value
£ 5 000 – 8 000
BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (1872-1898)
Three autograph letters signed (two with initials, 'A.' and 'A.B.', one in full 'Aubrey Beardsley') to Leonard Smithers (2) and Ada Leverson, [Boscombe, 20 October 1896], Hôtel Cosmopolitain, Menton, 1 January 1898 and 114 Cambridge Street, London, n.d.
Together 2½ pages, various sizes (the 1898 letter to Smithers on an elongated leaf); two envelopes. Provenance: 1896 letter to Smithers and the undated letter to Ada Leverson: Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books, January 1993; the 1898 letter to Smithers: Philip S. Burns – sale of his Aubrey Beardsley collection, Sotheby's, 19 November 1999, lot 127 – Barry Humphries (1934-2023).

Illustrations for Volpone, and other schemes. Writing from the south of France in January 1898, Beardsley discusses the paper-stock, pricing structure and his illustrative scheme for a projected edition of Volpone: 'As to number of drawings. The list of 24 I sent you was made when I intended having several half page illustrations in the book, & doing all the work in pure line. As you will see from the initials I have sent you the work will be far more elaborate, & as I don't want to be longer than 12 weeks at the utmost on Volpone the number of pictures must necessarily reduced from 24 to something considerably less... If I let you have all the work in hand by last week in March, I suppose the book could be out first week in May?'. The brief letter to Smithers in 1896 sends a flurry of news, along with a Savoy cover (not present): 'I'm sorry you didn't like the Repetition of Tristan ... I have begun the Herodiade & am finishing the drawing you liked called "Et ego in Arcadia". Many thanks for Racine'. The letter to Ada Leverson (Oscar Wilde's 'Sphinx') thanks her for an introduction for 'Raymond' to the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, concluding 'The Soothsayer has his little tricks'.

Leonard Smithers (1861-1907) is the emblematic publisher of the Decadent movement. Beardsley's proposal to send him the Volpone illustrations by the last week of March 1898 was to prove optimistic: he died on 16 March. Letters, p. 147.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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13.02.2025 – 13.02.2025
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