Wilde (Oscar) The Sphinx, first edition, one of 200 copies, printed in green, red and black, illustrations by Charles Ricketts, bookplate to paste down, occasional light sprinkled spotting, original vellum, gilt with designs by Ricketts, small portion of discolouration to lower cover, very light foxing, else a bright copy, Elkin Mathews and John Lane, The Bodley Head, 4to, 1894.

⁂ Rare first edition of one of the landmarks of 1890s book production, overseen at the author's request by his friend the artist and typographer Charles Ricketts. Ricketts considered the designs for the illustrations and for the binding amongst his best illustrative work. The Pall Mall Budget reviewed, "The vellum binding, the various symbolic designs, the quaint rubicated initials and the general arrangement of the text, all by Mr Rickett's sympathetic art, are most subtly infused by the spirit of the poem. The designs on the cover are particularly striking, and Mr Ricketts has never made a lovelier thing than the group of maidens clustering round "the moon horned Io" as she weeps." (21 June, 1894)