The Works. by WILDE, Oscar - 1908-22

London: Methuen & Co,, 1908-22. First collected edition of Wilde's works, limited to 1,000 sets on handmade paper, including For Love of the King: a Burmese Masque, a play supposedly by Wilde but in fact forged by the Irish author Mabel Cosgrove. The texts for this edition were mostly taken from the last editions to be supervised by the author. Copyright in The Picture of Dorian Gray was held by Charles Carrington, so that volume alone appears with his Paris imprint. In 1922 Methuen announced the discovery of a new play by Wilde, For Love of the King, and published it as a pendant volume to the original 14-volume set. The play was denounced by Wilde's bibliographer Christopher Millard, and, although Methuen won a court case against him for this claim, it is now generally accepted to have been a forgery by Mabel Wodehouse Pearse, née Cosgrove. 15 volumes, octavo (214 x 145 mm). Attractively bound in recent green morocco, titles and decoration to spines gilt, roll to boards gilt, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, others untrimmed. An excellent set.