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WILDE, Oscar.
An Ideal Husband.
First edition, one of 1,000 copies printed of the regular trade issue, inscribed copy, signed by Oscar Wilde on the front free endpaper, and inscribed in another hand above his signature, "Spencer Grey, from". The barrister Egerton Spencer Grey (1863–1950) was Assistant Official Receiver at the Bankruptcy Court, Carey Street, when Wilde was bankrupted in 1895. (In De Profundis, Wilde movingly recalls Robert Ross's kindness in doffing his hat to him amid the thronged corridors of Carey Street.) Grey had been promoted to Official Receiver in Bankruptcy by the time Wilde's estate was discharged from bankruptcy in July 1906, and had some correspondence with Methuen at that time. Under the circumstances, it is unlikely in the extreme that Wilde presented this copy to Grey. More likely is that Grey obtained a previously signed copy from Wilde's chattels, either at the time of the bankruptcy or at its discharge, and added his own name as if he were its recipient.
Octavo. Original pink cloth, titles and decorative flourishes to spine and boards gilt. Inscribed by the author and presumably the recipient on the front free endpaper. Spine a little sunned, a few spots to uncut edges and occasionally elsewhere: a very good copy.
