Halloween 2020

A r t & I l l u s t r a t i o n 45 Fine New Acquisitions H alloween 2020 “Notorious”: Beardsley’s Illustrations For Wilde’s Salome , Folio Portfolio With 17 Exhibition-Size Plates Including Illustrations Not In The 1894 Edition 43. BEARDSLEY, Aubrey. Portfolio of Aubrey Beardsley’s Drawings Illustrating “Salome” by Oscar Wilde. London, 1906. Folio, original three-quarter cloth, 18 leaves loose as issued. $2900. Click for more info Scarce folio collection, circa 1906, of Beardsley’s controversial illustrations for the 1894 first edition in English of Wilde’s Salome, featuring 17 splendid folio plates, including the censored first version of “The Toilette of Salome” (XIII), deemed too scandalous for inclusion in the 1894 edition, in original half vellum and gilt-stamped portfolio. Beardsley’s images for the 1894 first edition in English of Wilde’s 1893 play made the artist “notorious, and it remains the book of which most people think when his name is mentioned… the book’s appearance was delayed, in part because of his publisher’s fear lest the illustrations be found indecent… When Salome was published, the critics made their expected protest, though Wilde was their primary target” (Ray, 315). Wilde viewed the illustrations as “quite wonderful.” Mixed issue, with “List of Plates” in letterpress (later issue) and the 17 plates unnumbered, as in the first issue. “Only 13 of the 16 illustrations Beardsley designed for Salome were printed in John Lane’s 1894 edition; ‘John and Salome,’ ‘Salome on the Settle’ and the first version of ‘The Toilette of Salome’ were excluded” (Latham, 194n). Plates fine, light expert repairs to portfolio paper flap folds, light wear to portfolio boards.