While the binding, with Charles Ricketts’ familiar gilt design on the front cover, is not in the best of conditions, an inscription on the half-title of this example of one of the 250 large paper copies of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray published by Ward Lock in 1891 ensured that it set an auction record.
Sold for €80,000 (£70,175) by Christie’s Paris (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) on October 7 – more than doubling the previous best for the book – it bore a later, but key inscription: “Given to Pierre Loüys by his friend Oscar Wilde in London in June”.