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.
-
First edition; 8vo; mild browning to free endpapers, spare printed spine label tipped in at end; publisher's yellow cloth with printed spine label, spine slightly lightened, printed dust-jacket, slightly tanned at spine, but otherwise very good.
£175 -
First UK edition; 8vo; 16pp. advertisements, browning to endpapers, two additional title labels tipped-in at end; publisher's red cloth (browned) printed spine label, spine darkened, slight shelf-lean, otherwise very good.
£150 -
First edition; small 4to (c. 225 x 175 mm); title-page printed in black & red, 48 monotone plates mounted onto captioned heavy paper, 2 further printed illustrations, 2pp. advertisements; publisher's green cloth pictorially blocked in gilt, some dulling to gilt, a little light damp speckling toward fore-edge of upper board.
£175 -
![[RHYMERS' CLUB].](http://beta.shapero.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1bbe0f863922f091e1b357048c86d01e/1/0/104667.jpg)
First edition, one of 650 copies; 8vo; 15pp. advertisements dated May 1894, some marginal toning; publisher's brown buckram lettered in gilt to spine, partly uncut.
£275 -
First edition; 8vo (200 x 155 mm); frontispiece by Laurence Housman with tissue guard, decorative title printed in orange, 16pp. advertisements; publisher's bevelled buckram with gilt leaf motif reminiscent of Charles Shannon, a little sunned, partly uncut.
£225 -
![[NONESUCH PRESS]; WILDE, Oscar; RICKETTS, Charles.](http://beta.shapero.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1bbe0f863922f091e1b357048c86d01e/1/0/104747.jpg)
Number 773 of 800 copies; tall 8vo (260 x 155 mm.); title with vignette printed in red; original near-white cloth gilt, designed by Ricketts, top edge gilt, others uncut, an excellently bright & sharp copy.
£400 -
Sole issue; 8vo, single leaf folded vertically and printed on all sides; some toning; loose as issued.
£125 -
First edition; 12mo; decorative title printed in red & black, device by the authir printed in red at end, light browning to free endpapers; publisher's drab boards with printed title label to spine, slightly browned, a good copy.
£225 -
'Third Edition'; large 8vo (225 x 170 mm); photogravure title-page, printed in blue throughout with decorative borders, 9 photogravure plates, tissue guards, red endpapers stamped in silver; publisher's red roan blocked in gilt, worn at edges with sight loss to spine ends.
£95 -
First edition; 8vo; 20pp. advertisements with pictorial page, unopened, a little marginal toning, contemporary gift inscription in neat hand to front pastedown; publisher's paper-backed boards with 'O' corner-piece motif, printed paper spine label, spine tanned, some light marking, but a sharp copy.
£250
