Oscar Wilde | Manicure set, said to have been presented to Wilde as a birthday gift by Robbie Ross and Reggie Turner, 1900

[Oscar Wilde]

A six-piece travelling manicure set elaborately embossed with foliate scrolls and flowers, including scissors, brush, nail file, and nail buffer, hallmarked Birmingham 1900 and with the maker’s mark of Adie & Lavekin Ltd, housed in a necessaire (110 x 180 x 50 mm), with the label of Pearse & Steer, 5 South Street, Greenwich on the inside lid, with an engraved silver cartouche set on the lid (“Presented to Oscar Wilde By his affectionate friends Reggie and Robbie October 16^th 1900”), minor repairs to box

This manicure set was one of a number of items acquired before 1914 from the family of Jean Dupoirier, proprietor of the Hotel d’Alsace, where Wilde died, by David Adamson, a mining engineer and Wilde collector. Dupoirier had laid out Wilde's body, clothing him in a white nightshirt. He stated to Adamson that this set was employed to prepare Wilde’s body for viewing after his death. This fact was recorded on an envelope containing the key to a clock given by Dupoirier to Wilde, of which a photocopy accompanies the current lot (the envelope was sold with the clock, Bonhams, 30 September 1997, lot 279).

The engraved inscription states that it was given to Wilde on his final birthday by his friends Robbie Ross and Reggie Turner. Wilde had telegraphed to Robbie Ross "Terribly weak. Please come" and both Ross and Turner quickly crossed the Channel, arriving in Paris in time for Wilde's birthday. The two men stayed close to Wilde during his final weeks. Wilde was by this time bed-bound and he died on 30 November 1900.

PROVENANCE:

David Adamson; by descent to his great-grandson; Sale, Bonhams, 30 September 1997, lot 278