Wilde (Oscar) The Sphinx, first edition, one of only 25 large paper copies, half-title, dedication leaf, pictorial title, illustrations (most full-page) and decorations by Charles Ricketts, printed in red, green and black, with tissue guard to title (very slightly foxed but barely affecting text), bookplate of Edmund Bulkley, an excellent copy in the original pictorial gilt vellum with ties, designed by Ricketts and Henry Leighton, yapp edges, uncut, very lightly soiled, [Mason 362; cf.Ray 262], small 4to, London & Boston, 1894.

⁂ Ricketts's masterpiece, which he designed as a complete entity, from the illustrations and lay-out to the striking binding. "The result is a perfect whole, as harmonious as it is dazzling". Ray