Cloth binding for Wilde’s ‘Poems’

Charles Ricketts

1892

Cloth binding with gilt overlays

8½ x 5¾ inches

Ricketts's heraldic design encapsulates the sophisticated tone of Wilde's verse. Distinctly Art Nouveau in style, it is one of most elaborate and elegant covers of the period, and was widely imitated. The curious interlacing of the title and author's name typifies the designer's mannered treatment of lettering.

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

  • Art Nouveau
  • Oscar Wilde (sitemap/homepage)

    • Photograph and text by Simon Cooke

    Reproduced by kind permission of an anonymous collector [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one.]