Wilde Oscar

1893 · réf. 6451 — London: Elkin Mathews and John Lane 1893. First edition. One of 50 large-paper copies on hand-made paper. A Fine copy. Quarto 8 5/8 x 6 5/8 inches; 220 x 169 mm. i blank i limitation iii-xvi 132 pp. Handsomely bound by Zaehnsdorf ca. 1897 stamp-signed in gilt on front turn-in and with their exhibition stamp in black on rear paste-down. Full dark green crushed levant morocco covers bordered in gilt enclosing a six-line gilt border. Spine with five raised bands decoratively framed and lettered in gilt in compartments gilt-ruled board edges multi gilt-lined turn-ins top edge gilt others uncut. With the bookplates of the renowned collector C. S. Ascherson dated 1897 and Paul Louis Weiller also a famous book collector and a great friend of J. Paul Getty on front paste-down. Housed in a felt-lined dark green cloth clamshell case spine with leather label lettered in gilt. A couple of tiny and unobtrusive minor stains on blank borders otherwise a clean copy in a wonderful and early if somewhat austere binding by the great firm of Zaehnsdorf. Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan A Play About a Good Woman was his "first successful dramatic production" and one of his many masterpieces Mendelssohn. His talent for astute adaptations of traditional comedic tropes like the long-lost child or mistaken motivations are utilized to full effect in this narrative. The four-act comedy was infamously first performed on 20 February 1892. In addition to pulling on popular stars to perform Wilde had the young men of his entourage arrive at the premier wearing green carnations in their buttonholes-something that scandalized attendees when in a metatheatrical moment one of the characters onstage appeared with one as well referencing its cost and symbolism for decadent immorality. Prim attendees were in fact surrounded by a generation of young men devoted to such aesthetic ideals and wearing the same flower. Mason 358. Elkin Mathews and John Lane unknown