Wilde, Oscar

4to, FIRST EDITION,  NUMBER 55 OF 75 COPIES SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER, partially unopened, title-page printed in red and black, frontispiece and 2 full-page illustrations by Walter Crane, head- and tail-pieces by Jacomb-Hood, original Japanese vellum over bevelled boards, upper cover with pictorial design by Hood in black, lettered in red, spine lettered in black, spotting, some soiling to covers, rubbed, collector's bookplates

Mason 314

"They are studies in prose, put for Romance's sake into a fanciful form : meant partly for children, and partly for those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy, and who find in simplicity a subtle strangeness." (Oscar Wilde, Letter to George Herbert Kersley, June 15, 1888)