WILDE, Oscar (1864-1900)

Estimate value
£ 12 000 – 18 000
Auction dateClassic
10.07.2024 10:30UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
ID 1249756
Lot 184 | WILDE, Oscar (1864-1900)
WILDE, Oscar (1864-1900)
Salomé. Drame en un acte. Paris: Paul Schmidt for Librairie de l'Art Indépendant and Elkin Mathews, London, 1893.
First edition, one of 50 copies on Van Gelder paper, presentation copy inscribed by Wilde to Minnie Adela (‘Tiny’) Schuster: ‘Tiny Schuster, from her friend the author. Feb 93’. The daughter of a German banker, Minnie Adela Schuster lived with her mother in a large villa in Wimbledon, passing her winters in Torquay where she was familiar with Wilde’s landlady Lady Georgina Mount-Temple. Known to her friends as 'Tiny', she claimed that Wilde ‘would not naturally know me by my real Christian name, which he has never heard in his life – he has never heard me called – or seen my name signed – by any other name than my nickname – too ridiculous to mention’. 'Throughout Wilde's imprisonment, Adela Schuster was unwavering in her devotion, working tirelessly to find means of mitigating his suffering. Although he was never to see her again, she remained enshrined in his memory’ (Maguire). He described her in De Profundis as ‘one of the most beautiful personalities I have ever known: a woman, whose sympathy and noble kindness to me both before and since the tragedy of my imprisonment have been beyond power and description: one who has really assisted me … to bear the burden of my troubles more than anyone else in the whole world has’. Mason 349.

Octavo (200 x 149mm). Device by Félicien Rops on title and colophon (some marginal staining towards end). Original purple paper wrappers lettered in silver (faded, some small nicks to edges, some staining). Provenance: Minnie Adela Schuster (1850-1940; authorial presentation inscription).
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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10.07.2024 – 10.07.2024
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