Oscar Wilde | Signed inscription, to Kenyon Fortescue, 1882, framed with a photograph

Oscar Wilde

Signed inscription (“To Kenyon Fortescue from his friend Oscar Wilde. Feby ’82. With his love”), written around a printed facsimile reproduction of the Great Seal and signature of Henry VIII, 8vo (c.200 x 140 mm), creased; framed alongside a photographic portrait of Wilde, 245 x 355 mm, not examined out of frame

This warm inscription by Oscar Wilde, written during his lecture tour of America is written on a leaf that appears to have been removed from a copy of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper (1882), which contains an identical facsimile of Henry VIII’s seal and signature as its frontispiece. Twain's charming children's story would have been a suitable gift for the young Kenyon Fortescue (1871–1939), who was the illegitimate son of Robert Roosevelt, a writer and politician who was a friend of Wilde.

PROVENANCE:

Sale in our New York rooms, 24 September 1986, lot 59