{"product_id":"la-ballade-de-la-geole-de-reading","title":"Presentation Copy of La Ballade de la Geôle de Reading on Japon Impérial","description":"\u003ch3\u003eAn Unnumbered Hors Commerce Presentation Copy in Art Deco Style Binding\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWILDE, Oscar. \u003cem\u003eLa Ballade de la Geôle de Reading.\u003c\/em\u003e Paris: Javal et Bourdeaux, 1927.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA rare unnumbered \u003cem\u003ehors commerce\u003c\/em\u003e presentation copy of the 1927 Javal et Bourdeaux edition of Wilde’s \u003cem\u003eBallad of Reading Gaol\u003c\/em\u003e, printed on Japon Impérial, illustrated with fifteen colour copper engravings after Jean-Georges Cornélius, and preserved in a contemporary Art Deco-style binding with the original wrappers bound in.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is not one of the ordinary numbered copies in the limitation of 225 copies on papier impérial du Japon. It is marked “N° H.C.” and accompanied by a presentation slip explaining that this copy is “hors-commerce, privately printed, out of series, not for sale.” That distinction gives the volume a more intimate and privileged place within the edition: not merely a limited copy, but a presentation copy outside the commercial sequence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eEdition \u0026amp; Physical Description\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarge quarto, approximately 294 × 236 mm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e26, XLV pages, followed by one leaf. Preface by Henry D. Davray. Illustrated after Jean-Georges Cornélius with fifteen copper engravings printed in colour by Ch. Thévenin, comprising nine full-page plates and six vignettes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLimited to 225 copies on papier impérial du Japon. This copy is an unnumbered hors commerce presentation copy, marked “N° H.C.” Original printed wrappers bound in.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe justification states that Cornélius’s compositions were engraved by Thévenin on three copper plates, without a black plate, giving the illustrations their distinctive tonal severity and symbolic atmosphere.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWilde’s Prison Poem\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWilde wrote \u003cem\u003eThe Ballad of Reading Gaol\u003c\/em\u003e after his release from prison in May 1897, while living in exile in France.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is the most stripped and devastating work of his late life. Gone is the glittering social brilliance of the comedies, the cultivated paradox, the decorative theatricality. In its place is a poem of punishment, shame, execution, dehumanization, and the moral brutality of the prison system.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe poem was born from Wilde’s imprisonment at H.M. Prison Reading after his 1895 conviction for “gross indecency” and sentence to two years’ hard labour. Its famous prison identity, C.33, becomes more than a biographical marker. It becomes a symbolic signature of the fall from public genius to condemned body, from Oscar Wilde to inmate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat is why the present edition is especially powerful visually. The C.33 prison-door motif appears on the wrappers, title page, H.C. limitation page, and endpapers, turning the physical book itself into a meditation on confinement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCornélius and the Symbolist Wilde\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe illustrations by Jean-Georges Cornélius give the poem a severe, almost liturgical visual language.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCornélius trained in the artistic circles of Gustave Moreau and Luc-Olivier Merson and brought to his work a mixture of Symbolist modernity, decorative medievalism, and spiritual intensity. His designs are not merely decorative accompaniments to Wilde’s text. They interpret the poem as a drama of guilt, sacrifice, and inner desolation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe fifteen colour copper engravings, printed by Ch. Thévenin, have a sombre theatricality entirely suited to \u003cem\u003eReading Gaol\u003c\/em\u003e. The plates and vignettes give the book a prison-like rhythm: enclosed, ritualized, and haunted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCornélius also illustrated Wilde’s \u003cem\u003eDe Profundis\u003c\/em\u003e, along with works such as \u003cem\u003eLa Chanson de Roland\u003c\/em\u003e and Baudelaire’s \u003cem\u003eLes Paradis artificiels\u003c\/em\u003e, making him an unusually fitting artist for Wilde’s late French reception.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eBinding \u0026amp; Design\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCustom contemporary Art Deco-style binding, morocco-backed with taupe suede or suede-like boards, gilt spine lettering, and gilt rule.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe original printed wrappers are bound in, including the striking C.33 prison-door design. The repeated use of the C.33 motif across the wrappers, title page, limitation page, and endpapers gives the volume unusually strong visual unity. It is not just a fine press Wilde edition, but a designed object built around the iconography of imprisonment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Art Deco character of the binding also places the book firmly in the world of 1920s French luxury publishing, where literary modernity, fine paper, limited issue, and severe decorative design often met.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProvenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the celebrated Oscar Wilde collection of Jeremy J. Mason, with his ex-libris present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMason was one of the most important modern private collectors of Oscar Wilde material, assembling books, manuscripts, letters, portraits, and associated Wildeana. His provenance gives the copy strong collecting significance within the modern history of Wilde collecting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOriginal invoice and presentation slip included.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCondition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVery good or better.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContemporary Art Deco-style morocco-backed suede binding sound and handsome, with light wear and minor rubbing. Original printed wrappers bound in. Internally generally clean with light age toning. Colour engravings remain strong and attractive. Jeremy J. Mason ex-libris present. Presentation slip included.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA scarce and highly desirable unnumbered hors commerce presentation copy of Wilde’s \u003cem\u003eBallad of Reading Gaol\u003c\/em\u003e, printed on Japon Impérial, illustrated with fifteen colour copper engravings after Jean-Georges Cornélius, custom bound in contemporary Art Deco style, and distinguished by Jeremy J. Mason provenance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46193138106556,"sku":null,"price":1250.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/Designutennavn_5_-Photoroom_a657b45c-7126-4ba3-a898-a2a6a1000784.png?v=1779646630","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/la-ballade-de-la-geole-de-reading","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}