The Publisher’s Own Hollande-Paper Copy of a Rare French Wilde Collection

WILDE, Oscar. La Maison de la Courtisane. Nouveaux poèmes. Paris: P.-V. Stock, 1919. Bibliothèque cosmopolite, no. 72. Translation by Albert Savine.

A rare and highly attractive French Wilde imprint: the publisher’s own copy of La Maison de la Courtisane, one of only ten copies printed on Hollande paper, numbered and signed by the publisher and preserved in a handsome custom binding with the original wrappers retained.

Issued in Paris by P.-V. Stock in 1919 as part of the celebrated Bibliothèque cosmopolite series, the volume belongs to the early posthumous French reception of Oscar Wilde, when French readers and publishers played a decisive role in transforming Wilde from disgraced aesthete into a canonical modern literary figure. The present example is especially distinguished not only by its limitation, but by its remarkable publisher association and later provenance from the important Wilde collector Jeremy J. Mason.

Edition & Physical Description

Octavo.

First French edition of this Stock collection. One of only ten copies printed on Hollande paper, this being number 3, numbered and signed or initialled by the publisher. The limitation statement reads:

“De cet ouvrage il a été tiré à part dix exemplaires sur papier de Hollande, numérotés et paraphés par l’éditeur.”

Bound in half blue cloth over blue marbled boards with green morocco lettering piece, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed, publisher’s yellow wrappers bound in, preserved in the original blue cloth slipcase. The restrained yet elegant binding suits the refined bibliophilic character of the edition particularly well.

The French Wilde

La Maison de la Courtisane does not correspond to a single English Wilde volume in this form, but instead represents a distinctly French editorial construction assembled for the posthumous continental Wilde audience.

Translated by Albert Savine, the collection gathers poems, prose fragments, meditations, prison writings, and literary pieces from across Wilde’s oeuvre under the symbolic title of The Harlot’s House, here rendered as La Maison de la Courtisane. The resulting volume functions almost as a miniature French Wilde anthology, blending decadence, aestheticism, lyricism, melancholy, and prison reflection into a unified literary portrait.

The contents include French translations of many of Wilde’s best-known poems and prose texts, among them The Harlot’s House, Ravenna, The Sphinx, Symphony in Yellow, Under the Balcony, Lotus Leaves, the prison letters to the Daily Chronicle, and several prose fragments assembled specifically for a French readership fascinated by Wilde’s combination of beauty, scandal, wit, and suffering.

The volume therefore belongs not merely to Wilde bibliography, but to the broader European reinvention of Wilde’s literary identity after his death.

The Publisher’s Copy

The present example is especially remarkable for its association with the publisher itself.

Inserted within the volume is a typed bookseller’s slip on Croxley Script watermarked paper headed “Oscar Wilde,” transcribed as follows:

Oscar Wilde

LA MAISON DE LA COURTISANE Nouveaux Poemes. Traduction
d’Albert Savine. Paris, P.-V. Stock, 1919.
First edition. No. 3 of ten copies on Hollande,
numbered and signed by the publisher. Bound in
half blue cloth and blue marbled boards; original
wrappers bound in; green morocco lettering piece.
This copy was originally the publisher’s. In fine
state in blue cloth slip-case.

£250

The slip corresponds precisely to the present volume and preserves an additional historical layer surrounding the book’s early bibliophilic life. Particularly striking is the explicit identification of the volume as “originally the publisher’s,” transforming the copy from a simple limitation issue into a more intimate relic of the Parisian publishing world that shaped Wilde’s posthumous French reputation.

Provenance

From the collection of Jeremy J. Mason, with his bookplate.

Mason assembled one of the notable modern collections of Wilde material, including books, manuscripts, letters, portraits, and associated Wildeana. His ownership further strengthens the bibliophilic significance of the present copy and situates it within an important modern tradition of Wilde collecting.

The typed bookseller’s slip recording the publisher association remains preserved within the volume.

Condition

A fine and unusually well-preserved copy.

The Hollande-paper text leaves remain generally clean and fresh with only mild toning and occasional small spots. The publisher’s yellow wrappers, preserved within the binding, show light handling and gentle toning. Deckled and untrimmed edges survive throughout.

The half blue cloth binding remains attractive and sound, and the original blue cloth slipcase is present. The laid-in typed bookseller’s slip retains old folds and creases from handling and storage.

An exceptionally desirable Wilde association copy combining rarity, limitation, publisher provenance, and distinguished collecting history.

References

Issued as Bibliothèque cosmopolite, no. 72. One of ten Hollande-paper copies signed or initialled by the publisher.