Bellmans

3 December | Printed Books, Maps & Manuscripts

12/3/25

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[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900)]. The Importance of Being Earnest. A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan, London, Leonard Smithers, 1899, 4to, original lilac cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION. NUMBER 283 OF 1,000 COPIES.
[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900)]. The Importance of Being Earnest. A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan, London, Leonard Smithers, 1899, 4to, original lilac cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION. NUMBER 283 OF 1,000 COPIES.
[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900)]. The Importance of Being Earnest. A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan, London, Leonard Smithers, 1899, 4to, original lilac cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION. NUMBER 283 OF 1,000 COPIES.
[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900)]. The Importance of Being Earnest. A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan, London, Leonard Smithers, 1899, 4to, original lilac cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION. NUMBER 283 OF 1,000 COPIES.
[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900)]. The Importance of Being Earnest. A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan, London, Leonard Smithers, 1899, 4to, original lilac cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION. NUMBER 283 OF 1,000 COPIES.

[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900)]. The Importance of Being Earnest. A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan, London, Leonard Smithers, 1899, 4to, original lilac cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION. NUMBER 283 OF 1,000 COPIES.

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Starting bid£700
Estimate £700 - £1,000
Absentee deadlineDec 3, 2025, 5:00:00 PM

[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900)].  The Importance of Being Earnest. A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan. London: Leonard Smithers and Co., 1899. 4to (208 x 155mm). Half title ([E2] torn at margin without loss, some mainly light marginal staining, some light scattered spotting, a few darker spots). Original lilac linen boards designed by Charles Shannon with stylised leaf motifs stamped in gilt, uncut (some faded ink marks to the covers, some lighter staining, the head and foot of the spine a little frayed). Provenance: Robert Booth (bookplate). FIRST EDITION of what is, arguably, the author's masterpiece and certainly his best-known work and most-performed play. NUMBER 283 OF 1,000 COPIES. "[F]irst performed in the St. James's Theatre, London, on 14 Feb. 1895. Wilde's most dazzling and epigrammatic work ... all ends happily" (The Oxford Companion to English Literature, ed. Drabble, 1985). Lady Bracknell's riposte to Jack's account of his being discovered as a baby in unusual circumstances at Victoria Station ("A hand-bag?") is perhaps the most famous aperçu in all of modern theatre. Mason Bibliography of Oscar Wilde (1914) 381 (describing the binding as being in "light red-brown linen boards").

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