First edition. Publisher's original blue cloth with web illustration in light blue to the upper board, titles in bronze to the upper board and spine. Frontispiece illustration by Aubrey Beardsley. A very good copy indeed, the binding square and firm with a little bumping and mild rubbing at the spine tips, the bronze lettering on the spine somewhat dulled. The contents, partially uncut, with the bookplate of the Martin Birnbaum (noted Wildean, New York art aficionado and author of 'Wilde: Fragments and Memories' (1914)) to the front pastedown, are otherwise clean throughout.
The first edition is known in the three issues or states, of which this is the second, and all of which relate to the frontispiece illustration. The first issue, features a frontispiece drawing by Aubrey Beardsley titled 'Black Coffee', this was withdrawn on the objection of the publisher (and former partner of Elkin Matthews), John Lane as it was intended for use in volume V of 'The Yellow Book'. It is thought that between 6 and 12 copies of the first issue escaped the publisher's cull. The second issue, as here, features Beardsley's replacement frontispiece 'Portrait of the Author'. A third, 'remainder issue', contains both examples of the frontispiece. (Lasner, Mark Samuels: A Selective Checklist of the Published Work of Aubrey Beardsley, 94).
Stock code: 28455
£100