Barry Humphries' Oscar Wilde First Edition Sold for £138,600
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Barry Humphries: The Personal Collection sale at Christie's has realised a total of £4,627,224 from a variety of lots of books, art, and Dame Edna ephemera.
Humphries was a book collector as well as performer with a particular interest in Oscar Wilde. Leading the book results was a presentation copy of the 1899 first edition, number 1 of 12, of The Importance of Being Earnest, inscribed by the author to his publisher Leonard Smithers 'To Leonard Smithers from the Author. In sincere friendship and astonishment. Feb. 1899', which sold for £138,600.
Further Wilde items that went under the hammer included a first edition, presentation copy of his 1893 Salomé (£47,880) which was later owned by his lover, Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas. Wilde inscribed it to Viscount Encombe, the former roommate of Douglas. Autograph manuscript drafts for 17 of Wilde's epigrams on art, morality, life and education realised £47,880.
Other highlights included Richard Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights (Benares [probably London]: Kamashastra Society for the Grolier Society, London [i.e. Smithers and Nichols], 1885 [but 1897]) which sold for £17,640, number 1 of 20 copies of the 'edition de grande luxe', complete with its original polished mahogany presentation ‘casket’.
Meanwhile, a back cover design for Aubrey Beardsley's The Yellow Book went for £60,480, while his The Yellow Book: An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 1. Elkin Mathews & John Lane, [c.1894] which sold for £6,300, a presentation copy with the inscription to a leading actress of the day: 'Mrs. Patrick Campbell from Aubrey Beardsley who is an unwholesome and incompetent fellow.' A signed Beardsley letter featuring a self-caricature in ink made £40,320.
