NEW YORK ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR 2026
64. WILDE, Oscar DE PROFUNDIS Methuen and Co., 1905 [46735] First edition. One of two-hundred copies printed on large handmade paper. Publisher’s original white buckram, decorated in gilt with vi- gnettes by Charles Ricketts. Top edge gilt, others uncut. Housed in a cus- tom green cloth slipcase. A near fine copy with a bookplate to the front pastedown and very slight dustiness to the spine. $9,000 The first edition of the only literary work Wilde produced while in prison, limited to 200 copies in this format, and pub- lished by Robert Ross five years after his death. Ricketts’s designs for the cover vi- gnettes are particularly apt, showing first a bird behind prison bars, then a bird fly - ing free and finally, at the foot of the cov - er, a star shining above the “great waters” that Wilde describes in the final, cathartic paragraph of the work. The immediate success of this book, en-
By 1783, Wilkins’s work for the East India Company was inter- fering with his studies, and took a toll on his health. This led to an intervention by the Gover- nor-General of Bengal, Warren Hastings, who would become his patron. In Hastings, Wilkins had found a generous and enthusiastic patron. It was arranged that Wilkins could move to Benares and, freed from administrative duties, he began translating the portion of the Mahabhara- ta known as the Bhagavad Gītā from Sanskrit into English. Hav- ing published his translation of the Bhagavad Gita in 1785, he set about translating the Hi- topadesha into English from the original Sanskrit by Pandit Narayana. He also helped to de- sign printing methods to create Bengali publications, the first typeset book in the language. The Hitopadesha had long been
tering its twelfth edition by 1908, along with the popularity of his The Ballad Of Reading Gaol, helped to lift the bankruptcy of his estate by 1906. Mason 389. 65. WILKINS, Charles THE HEETOPADES [HITOPADE- SHA] of Veeshnoo-Sarma in a Series of Connected Fables, Interspersed with Moral, Prudential, and Political Maxims; Translated From an Ancient Manuscript in the Sanskreet Language. With Explanatory Notes, by Charles Wilkins. Bath: Printed by R. Cruttwell and sold by C. Nourse, 1787 [46731] First edition. 8vo. Bound in contemporary tree calf, raised bands with six gilt compartments to spine, five encasing gilt feathers with as foliate border and one with a red morocco title label. All edges yellow. A fine copy. Very slight rubbing to the corners. Internally clean and very fresh, with a light marginal ink smudge on page 98-99. An exceptionally well preserved copy. $5,250 An exceptional copy of the first printing of the Hitopadesha, preced - ing the first Indian Sanskrit edition by some seventeen years. Wilkins was a pioneering Sanskrit scholar, entering the service of the East India Company as a writer in 1770. In his service he proved adept in the vernacular Hindu and Bengali languages, as well as in Persian. In 1778, after assisting in the publication of Halhed’s Gram- mar Of The Bengali Language, Wilkins took up the study of San- skrit, the classical source of most modern Indian languages.
a favourite among scholars of the British Raj and was considered a foundational Hindu text and a masterpiece of Sanskrit literatre. It is a collection of animal fables and moral tales designed to instruct on worldly wisdom, statecraft, and morality and is divided into four sections: Winning Friends, Losing Friends, Waging War and Mak- ing Peace. Wilkins’s translations were fundamental to furthering the study of ancient Hindu philosophy through out the Western World and lead to his election to the Royal Society in 1788.
66. WOOLF, Virgin- ia THE VOYAGE OUT Duckworth, 1915 [46543] First edition. Original green cloth with gilt titles on the spine and black ti- tles on the upper cover. A very good copy with a lit- tle wear to the spine ends and corners. Ownership stamp neatly erased the front end paper. $2,500 Woolf’s first novel. Kirkpatrick A1.a
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