1894 ❧ BEARDSLEY, AUBREY. 1872-1898. WILDE, OSCAR. 1854-1900. Salome, a Tragedy in One Act:Translated from the French [by Lord Alfred Douglas]. London: Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1894. 8vo (210 x 149 mm). Wood-engraved frontispiece, 9 plates, and tailpiece by Aubrey Beardsley, 16-page publisher's advertisement catalog dated January 1894 bound in at end. First leaf of ads with marginal tape repair. Publisher's blue green cloth with gilt devices designed by Beardsley on both covers. Neatly rebacked. Provenance: John Lumsden Profert (bookplate designed by Beardsley). FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, one of 500 copies on ordinary paper. The foundational pinnacle of late-Victorian Decadent book illustration. While Oscar Wilde's scandalous retelling of the biblical narrative was initially banned from the London stage, this first English translation marked the explosive arrival of Aubrey Beardsley's avant-garde, art nouveau style. His transgressive, heavily stylized black-and-white ink designs bypassed orthodox narrative art to define the sensory visual lexicon of the Aesthetic movement. Mason 350. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing