Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Wilde, Oscar. The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Roycrofters, 1905.
Price: US$5.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Textblock only. Inscribed "Carlos Parsons Cole Roycroft Shop East Aurora 1906". Some soil on exposed sides of endpapers, 1/2 inch light tan stains (from vanished suede? ) , otherwise tight, clean, paper crisp, unmarked. Fine press.
Seller: Frost Pocket Farm - IOBA, Fleetville, PA, U.S.A.
Wilde, Oscar. The Ballad of Reading Gaol. The Roycrofters, East Aurora, NY, 1905.
Price: US$39.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Brown suede cover in considerably good condition with pink moire fabric inside front and back covers. Some pages are raggedy on edges. Smudges on a couple pages. A hundred and nine stanzas to this heart wrenching ballad of a man who murdered the woman he loved and is inconsolable till the day he is hanged. Written after Wilde's release from Reading Gaol where he had been incarcerated after being convicted of homosexual offenses. Unpaginated.
Seller: Second Edition Books, Butte, MT, U.S.A.
Wilde, Oscar. THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL. Roycrofters: East Aurora, 1905.
Price: US$40.25 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 8 x 6", limp brown leather, gilt and leather label on front cover, unpaginated. Covers rubbed and soiled, lacks tips of spine and a corner of the ffep, blank page has approximately 1" vertical tear, textblock and inner hinges cracked. Still, an attractive copy.
Seller: John K King Used & Rare Books, Detroit, MI, U.S.A.
Oscar Wilde. The Ballad of Reading Gaol. The Roycrofters, 1905.
Price: US$46.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: East Aurora, 1905; string binding; suede covers; beveled edges; wear at edges where text block lays; covers darkened by age; 8vo - over 7 3/4" to 9 3/4" tall; silk paste-downs; half title page detached but present; interior clean and unmarked; not paginated
Seller: A Squared Books (Don Dewhirst), South Lyon, MI, U.S.A.
Wilde, Oscar. The Ballad of Reading Gaol. The Roycrofters, East Aurora, NY, 1905.
Price: US$50.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First Roycrofters printing, limp red leather case binding with stiff pastedowns, the binding is weakened with a few light cracks throughout, and the book also has light creasing to the leather around the edges and corners, wear to the silk along the edges of the pastedowns, creasing to the corners of the pages, and a previous owner's name penned to the last page. Overall, this is a solid, Good+ copy.
Seller: Fahrenheit's Books, Denver, CO, U.S.A.
WILDE, Oascar.. The ballad of reading Gaol. . . .. The Roycrofters, [1905]., East Aurora:, 1905.
Price: US$50.00 + shipping
Description: 12mo. [64 pp (unpaginated).] Title in red & blk, rubricated initials throughout, w/ hand-applied gilt to each initial. Limp red suede leather w/ yapp edges, gilt lettrng stmpd on frnt cvr, red silk pastedns (paper inner joints startng), still a VG bright copy. First Roycroft edition, printed with Cheltenham type. McKenna, History and Biliography of the Roycroft Printing Shop, 109.
Seller: Zephyr Used & Rare Books, Vancouver, WA, U.S.A.
Wilde, Oscar. The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Roycrofters, East Aurora, NY, 1905.
Price: US$100.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Very Good condition. Full Green Suede cover, 8 x 6". The initials have hand applied gold outlines.
Seller: Karl Books, Alpharetta, GA, U.S.A.
Price: US$149.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: VERY GOOD PLUS condition.Very slight wear, both endpapers s away.Shelf455
Seller: BookManBookWoman Books, Nashville, TN, U.S.A.
Price: US$454.25 + shipping
Description: 7.5 x 5.75", 3/4 leather; boards, teg, unpaginated, covers well worn, spine ends chipping, extremities bumped & worn, hinges loose, covers spotted, former owner's bookplate (with shadow opposite), still contents good. LIMITED TO 100 NUMBERED COPIES PRINTED ON JAPAN VELLUM, SIGNED BY ELBERT HUBBARD.
Seller: John K King Used & Rare Books, Detroit, MI, U.S.A.
Price: US$695.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Slim short 8vo size, unpaginated. Limited, numbered Roycroft edition, this copy #75/100, and signed by the founder of the Roycroft community, Elbert Hubbard. Roycroft was a community of artists and craftsmen which was pivotal in the turn of the century Arts and Crafts movement, and their craftsmanship and attention to detail is evident in this beautifully luxuriious publication: 3/4 bound in beige leather ruled in gilt, over buffed marbled vellum covered boards, hubbed spine with all compartments gilt, with top edge also gilt. The text is printed on Japan Vellum, and is two-tone with Drop-Cap, rubricated initials throughout. The top edge gilt has gone a touch coppery, there is a very slight inward bow to the front cover, and there is a faint pencil erasure on the front free flyleaf, but otherwise the book is in incredible shape, no wear, soil, or rubbing whatsoever, and the binding is tight as a drum. We do not believe it possible to find a finer copy of this book.
Seller: Aesthete's Eye Books, West Jordan, UT, U.S.A.