Books

London: Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1894. [44]p (including blanks), original gilt decorated vellum designed by Charles Ricketts, with his monogram to bottom left hand corner of upper cover and the monogram of the binders (Leighton, Son and Hodge) to the bottom left hand corner of the lower cover. Corners slightly bumped and rubbed, vellum generally quite bright and clean. Internally some light browning to page edges, some light foxing to several pages (as often), but generally fairly clean. Small booksellers label and previous owners book plate to front paste down. Printed in three colours throughout. Stated one of two hundred copies for the UK, with another fifty printed for the US and twenty-five large paper copies (and possibly a few more). Now housed in a cloth drop back box by Temple Bookbinders. Holbrook Jackson called 'The Sphinx' "'the most remarkable of the books of this period' because it translated the Wildean temperament into physical form ... Ricketts…

The Sphinx is a one-act play written by Oscar Wilde. It's a dramatic monologue by a woman who laments the absence of her lover, who has died. The richness of the symbolic imagery intertwines themes of love with the mystery of the Sphinx.

The first edition of 'The Sphinx' should have been published in 1894 by Elkin Mathews & John Lane. Any copy from that print run with corresponding publishing details can be considered a first edition. Often for older books, provenance and publisher's records along with physical inspection of the binding and typeset will help in identifying a first edition.