![[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900).] The Ballad of Reading Gaol by C.3.3. London: Leonard Smithers, 1898. 8° (c.227 x c.140mm). (Small area of spotting in a few leaves, light soiling to deckle edges.) Original white cloth-backed purple cloth-covered boards, gilt ornament on front board after Ricketts, spine lettered in gilt (spine browned and with some soiling, endpapers spotted). Provenance: Everard Digby Pepys (1876-1943; signature dated 1898, bookplate).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2012/CSK/2012_CSK_06237_0347_000(wilde_oscar_the_ballad_of_reading_gaol_by_c33_london_leonard_smithers061008).jpg?w=1)
細節
[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900).] The Ballad of Reading Gaol by C.3.3. London: Leonard Smithers, 1898. 8° (c.227 x c.140mm). (Small area of spotting in a few leaves, light soiling to deckle edges.) Original white cloth-backed purple cloth-covered boards, gilt ornament on front board after Ricketts, spine lettered in gilt (spine browned and with some soiling, endpapers spotted). Provenance: Everard Digby Pepys (1876-1943; signature dated 1898, bookplate).
ONE OF 99 COPIES SIGNED BY WILDE, this one numbered 39. The book was published anonymously using the name 'C.3.3.', Wilde's identification number at Reading prison. Despite the lack of advertisement and fear of negative associations with his name, word leaked out of the true identity, and the book became a resounding commercial success and one of Wilde's most identifiable works; this third edition was published within two months of the first. In his correspondence with Smithers, Wilder refers to this edition as the 'author's edition'; it is the first with an ornament by Charles Ricketts on the front cover. Mason 374.
ONE OF 99 COPIES SIGNED BY WILDE, this one numbered 39. The book was published anonymously using the name 'C.3.3.', Wilde's identification number at Reading prison. Despite the lack of advertisement and fear of negative associations with his name, word leaked out of the true identity, and the book became a resounding commercial success and one of Wilde's most identifiable works; this third edition was published within two months of the first. In his correspondence with Smithers, Wilder refers to this edition as the 'author's edition'; it is the first with an ornament by Charles Ricketts on the front cover. Mason 374.