Last Saturday, the book website Biblio sent out an advertisement. Until next Sunday, books can be purchased at a discount under the code word Oscar Wilde.
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| Biblio.com mail, 26 October 2024 |
The site gives this kind of discount - as an incentive to purchase used and rare books from antiquarian booksellers - with some regularity. [For the website see Biblio.com.] I usually ignore such messages but this one caught my attention.
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| Biblio.com mail, 26 October 2024 |
The discount code was illustrated with an image from one of Oscar Wilde's fairy tale collections, A House of Pomegranates, with illustrations by Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon, or, as the artists put it on the title page:
THE DESIGN & DECORATION OF THIS BOOK BY C. RICKETTS & C.H. SHANNON
Via Biblio.com, two copies of this first edition are now on sale, one for $731.30 ('partially unopened [...] Covers a bit darkened, corners rubbed, hinges weakened with paper cracked, endpapers slightly darkened, engraved bookplate on the front pastedown with the monogram engraved on the plate of R.E 1899, otherwise interior clean and bright') and one for $3,150.00 ('Very good plus to near fine', 'a beautiful copy', 'Housed in cloth-backed marbled paper custom box. Small bookplate on front pastedown. Hinges neatly repaired. Only light soiling to board edges, with a bit of toning to spine. Text block free from foxing').
Via Biblio.com, two copies of this first edition are now on sale, one for $731.30 ('partially unopened [...] Covers a bit darkened, corners rubbed, hinges weakened with paper cracked, endpapers slightly darkened, engraved bookplate on the front pastedown with the monogram engraved on the plate of R.E 1899, otherwise interior clean and bright') and one for $3,150.00 ('Very good plus to near fine', 'a beautiful copy', 'Housed in cloth-backed marbled paper custom box. Small bookplate on front pastedown. Hinges neatly repaired. Only light soiling to board edges, with a bit of toning to spine. Text block free from foxing').
So the 10% discount might amount to $73 or even $315. However, the maximum discount per order is $20, making these two copies cost $711.30 or $3,130.00 respectively.
