Eighteen Nineties & Decadent Movement
The Eighteen Nineties, or 1890s if preferred, is a fascinating era, for book & art collectors of course, but also for historians and those with an interest in societal changes. Nestled in the tale end of the Victorian period, the Eighteen Nineties on one hand saw a return to traditional practices of book production, embodied most splendidly perhaps by William Morris's Kelmscott Press, with the book being re-explored as an object of beauty; on the other hand, the 1890s saw a counter-culture emerge seemingly in spirit the (possibly inevitable) response to the overly worthy strictures & aspirations of Victorian society more generally.
This counter-culture is often defined by two Movements in the UK during the Eighteen Nineties: the Decadents, associated with excess and artifice; the Aesthetics, who sought to enshrine the beauty of all artist representation, over the socio-political for example. The period is perhaps most famously characterised by Oscar Wilde, whose arrest, arraignment and court cases in the Eighteen Nineties almost risked over-shadowing his remarkable literary output, and Aubrey Beardsley, an illustrator whose art evolved in tandem with the decade. The controversy surrounding the lifestyle of the former and the oft-challenging art of the latter led at its peak to outbursts of public anger, with for example the publisher's of Beardsley's Yellow Book having their building in London pelted with mud & stones.
Collecting Eighteen Nineties books
Many of the writers from this period are not so well known any more, but their first editions were often produced in small print runs or limited editions, and can still be highly sought after. The private press books from this epoch, i.e. Kelmscott, Vale, Eragny and (just about) Doves, can be extremely valuable, especially when in the smallest, special limitations (Kelmscott's Chaucer on vellum for example, a $1,000,000 book these days in theory). But there are often larger limitations more readily findable.
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2 vols, one of 600 copies & 550 copies respectively; 8vo; titles printed in red & black, vol. I with 5 etched plates by Charles Ricketts, 1 engraved bookplate design by William Bell Scott, tissue guards; vol. II with 16pp. advertisements at end; both in publisher's gilt-patterned green cloth, an attractive, clean pair.
£200 -
First edition, one of 75 large paper copies; 8vo (210 x 145 mm); frontispiece by G.F. Watts with tissue guard, 16pp. publisher's catalogue with pictorial title, purple endpapers; publisher's buckram, lettered in gilt to spine, some toning, uncut & unopened, a very good, sharp copy.
£180 -
First edition, one of 400 copies; 8vo; foxing to first and last leaves; publisher's dark green cloth lettered in gilt to spine, a fine sharp copy.
£150 -
First edition; 8vo; title printed in black & red, some minor toning, foxing to a few leaves, bookplate to front pastedown; publisher's buckram, lettered in gilt to spine.
£225 -
First edition; 8vo; 16pp. advertisements, marginal toning; publisher's pale russet cloth, spine lettered in gilt and a little dulled, uncut.
£150 -
![[THOMPSON, Francis]; MEYNELL, Wilfrid (editor).](http://beta.shapero.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1bbe0f863922f091e1b357048c86d01e/1/0/104697.jpg)
First edition; 8vo; 2pp. facsimile of the ms. 'The Toys' by Coventry Patmore as frontispiece, title vignette, further decorations; publisher's near-black cloth with yapp fore-edges, gilt decoration to one corner, printed spine label (browned), a little bumped & rubbed, top edge gilt, partly uncut.
£125 -
First edition; 8vo; woodcut decoration to title-page, 20pp. advertisements, bookplates to front pastedown; publisher's black buckram stamped in gilt replicating the title-page design, very slight rubbing, partly uncut, very good.
£85 -
First edition; small 8vo; frontispiece portrait, 14pp. advertisements woodcut device at end; publisher's grey boards with printed spine label, some spotting, label browned, superficial wear to lower joint, slight edge wear.
£85 -
First edition, first issue, with Smithers' imprint uncancelled; 8vo; Beardsley's Puck on Pegasus title-page device, browning to free endpapers, bookplates to front pastedown; publisher's dark blue cloth, lettered in gilt to spine with 'Leonard Smithers 1898' to foot, a little rubbed at extremities, uncut.
£150 -
First edition, inscribed presentation copy from the compiler; 8vo; title vignette by Beardsley, minor spotting; publisher's yellow cloth-backed pictorial boards with further design by Beardsley, a little rubbed and scuffed.
£200
