Beardsley (Aubrey).- Wilde (Oscar) Salome: A Tragedy in One Act, first edition in English, one of 500 copies, title and list of plates with pictorial borders, 10 plates and tail-piece by Aubrey Beardsley, 16pp. publisher's catalogue dated January 1894 at end, gutter splitting at points with one plate loose, frontispiece nearly loose and one or two others working so, occasional light soiling, light toning to margins, upper hinge cracked, original pale blue cloth with gilt decorations to centre of boards, uncut, spine browned, chipped with loss to imprint at foot and peeled away from upper joint, some rubbing to extremities, corners bumped, later board slipcase, [Mason 350; Ray 315A], small 4to, London & Boston, 1894.

⁂ Wilde commissioned Beardsley to illustrate Salome but was shocked by the results, feeling that the images overpowered his text. Consequently one plate was replaced and another two altered. Beardsley mocked Wilde in his illustrations, depicting him as the 'Woman in the Moon' and as a jester in 'Enter Herodias'.

Provenance: Charles Bain Hoyt (gilt book-label).