Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
WILDE, OSCAR. The Happy Prince And Other Tales. David Nutt, London, 1888.
Price: US$35000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First Large Paper Edition and the true first edition. From a limited print run of 75 signed copies, this one being number 39. Signed on the limitation page by Wilde and publisher David Nutt, as called for. Now housed in a lovely custom 1/4 leather clamshell, drop-back box, lined in velvet. Title page in red and black. Frontispiece illustrations for The Happy Prince and two further illustrations for The Selfish Giant and The Remarkable Rocket by Walter Crane, each in two states, as called for by Stuart Mason. Small head and tail-pieces, as well as the cover illustration, by Jacomb Hood. 4to; 28.4 x 19.7 cm. Printed at Ballantyne Press. Contains The Happy Prince;The Nightingale and the Rose; The Selfish Giant; The Devoted Friend; and The Remarkable Rocket. Both interior hinges have been re-inforced. "The covers are of stout bevelled boards covered with Japanese vellum;"(Stuart Mason). There is some minor soiling to the white Japanese vellum covered boards. The final page with the small design and the proceeding blank page remain uncut. The hand-made paper remains very clean and solid. Certainly one of the rarest and most desirable volumes for the Oscar Wilde collector. Data from: Bibliography of Oscar Wilde by Stuart Mason. Very Good.
Seller: First Place Books - ABAA, ILAB, Walkersville, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$48249.29 + shipping
Description: First edition, first printing. Signed Limited Edition. Small 4to. Stunning contemporary orange morocco by Zaehnsdorf, titles and ivy leaf tooling in gilt to the spine, upper board with titles in gilt, upper and lower boards decorated with acorns and oak, ivy, sycamore and willow leaves in gilt. The inner dentelles are decorated with ivy leaves in gilt, the binder's name stamp in gilt at the front and exhibition stamp in gilt at the rear. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Retaining the original upper wrapper. Illustrated title page in red with black vignette, printed title page in red and black. Illustrated with a frontispiece and two further plates by Walter Crane, each in two states, and 12 head and tailpieces by Jacomb Hood. A beautiful, near fine copy. Imperceptible repair to the upper joint, minor toning to the leather. The contents with light offsetting to the endpapers and a faint mark to the margin of one page are otherwise clean and bright throughout. Housed in a recent full black morocco, felt lined solander case, titles in gilt to the spine, and grey cloth slipcase. Limited to 75 large paper copies of which this is hand numbered 36 and signed by Oscar Wilde and the publisher David Nutt on the limitation page. A superb example of the rare first edition (preceding the trade edition of 1000 copies, issued later the same year), in an exceptional contemporary exhibition quality autumnal foliate binding. The Happy Prince is Oscar Wilde's first and best known collection of children's stories, including "The Selfish Giant", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Devoted Friend" and "The Remarkable Rocket". Wilde's "Reputation as an author dated from the publication of The Happy Prince and Other Tales in London in May 1888. The Athenaeum compared him to Hans Christian Andersen and Pater wrote to say that 'The Selfish Giant' was 'perfect in its kind,' and the whole book written in 'pure English' - a wonderful compliment" (Ellmann, Richard: Oscar Wilde p. 282). [Mason 314]. Provenance: Charles Mills, Lord Hillingdon (1830 - 1898); Sotheby's sale of 1932, lot 454; purchased by book dealer and co-founder of the Society for Theatre Research Ifan Kyrle Fletcher (with his neat pencil note recording the sale on the front pastedown); Helen Hambro, née Boyson (1936 - 2004). Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.
Seller: LUCIUS BOOKS (ABA, ILAB, PBFA), York, United Kingdom
Price: US$48249.29 + shipping
Description: First edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper a month after publication, "Edith Cowes from her sincere friend the author. Oscar Wilde, June, 88". A woman of that name contributed an article on the artist James Tissot in the Century Magazine (Cowes). The Happy Prince and Other Tales was the author's first and best-known collection of children's stories, including "The Selfish Giant", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Devoted Friend", and "The Remarkable Rocket". Wilde's "reputation as an author dated from the publication of the Happy Prince and Other Tales in London in May 1888. The Athenaeum compared him to Hans Christian Andersen, and Pater wrote to say that 'The Selfish Giant' was 'perfect in its kind,' and the whole book written in 'pure English' - a wonderful compliment" (Ellmann, p. 282). Mason 313. Richard Ellmann, Oscar Wilde, Hamish Hamilton, 1987. Edith Cowes, "Tissot's Life of Christ", Century Magazine, 51, no. 37, 1895-96 Small quarto. Original white Japanese vellum boards, spine lettered in black, front cover lettered in red with design in black by Jacomb Hood, edges untrimmed. Housed in a red morocco-backed slipcase, spine lettered in gilt, red cloth sides and chemise. Frontispiece with tissue-guard and 2 plates by Walter Crane, 12 head- and tailpieces by Jacomb Hood. Very slight patches of chipping and creasing at joints and extremities, slight superficial split in front hinge, contents foxed, some gatherings unopened and others opened a little roughly. A very good copy, the binding clean and unrestored.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
WILDE Oscar CRANE Walter. Happy Prince and Other Tales. , 1888.
Price: US$48500.00 + shipping
Description: "WILDE, Oscar. The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Illustrated by Walter Crane and Jacob Hood. London: David Nutt, 1888. Quarto, original full Japan vellum over beveled boards, uncut. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $48,500.Large-paper limited first edition, number 21 of only 75 copies on handmade paper, signed by Oscar Wilde and the publisher David Nutt. Extraordinarily rare."Wilde's reputation as an author dated from the publication of The Happy Prince and Other Tales He presents the stories like sacraments of a lost faith Their occasional social satire is subordinated to a sadness unusual in fairy tales" (Ellmann, 299). Wilde wrote these tales for his own children. He told Richard La Gallienne that "It is the duty of every father to write fairy tales for his children." His children later wrote of their father's "never-ending supply" of fairy tales and tales of adventure, which he often told them to calm them down. Many of his stories were never put to paper, unfortunately, but the ones that do survive are considered to be examples of his most creative writing. In addition to the title story, this collection includes "The Nightingale and the Rose," "The Selfish Giant," "The Devoted Friend," and "The Remarkable Rocket." Wilde commented that he intended these stories "partly for children, and partly for those who have kept the child-like faculties of wonder and joy, and who find in simplicity a subtle strangeness" (Hart-Davis, Letters of Oscar Wilde, 219). With three pen-and-ink line cuts by Art Nouveau illustrator Walter Crane, each in double suite (black and brown) on mounted India paper, and with intricate head- and tailpieces by Jacomb Hood, also on India paper. Mason 314. Plates and text fine, light foxing to endpapers, slightest soiling and very mild toning to extremities of boards, far less than usual, and small bump to lower corner. A most superior copy, about-fine, of a delicate and rare production."
Seller: Bauman Rare Books, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.