Illustrations to Salome
Melmoth & Co., 1904.
First edition of the Salome portfolio. Publisher's green portfolio lettered in gilt to the upper cover. Portfolio dimensions are 18 x 22 x 1 cm. Each of the plates is 17.2 x 21.7 cm, and is printed on coated art paper. Sixteen loose plates printed on art paper, being the thirteen plates from the John Lane edition of 1894 plus the suppressed plates, "John and Salome" and the alternative "The Toilette of Salome", as well as a reproduction of the original cover design. A fine copy.
Melmoth & Co., the publisher's of this portfolio, were in fact Leonard Smithers, Beardsley and Wilde's publisher from 1896 until going bankrupt in 1900. From 1900 Smithers used his stock of Beardsley plates and underground printers to produce unauthorised editions in small limitations. The most notable of these publications is his edition of Salome as it is the first to include all sixteen of Beardsley's illustrations. It was produced as a standard edition (250 copies) and a deluxe edition (50 copies) and a small number of portfolios containing the plates (as here). This portfolio is also the first to be produced for the Salome illustrations, anticipating, perhaps inspiring, the authorised version of 1907. Lane, who held the copyright, claimed to have had a 'large proportion' of the edition seized and destroyed, which will account in part for the extreme scarcity of copies.
cf. Lasner 59B (does not list the portfolio).
Stock ID: 33316
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