Prices for first editions of Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray have broken record after record over the last quarter of a century. At the time of writing, copies of the ordinary edition are on sale for sums such as US$95,000.00 (with some repair to the original spine) or US$54,995.00 (said to be a 'superb copy') or US$12,000.00 (rebound in a style that mimics the original design) or US$2,500.00 (a rebacked copy).
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| Fake dust jacket for Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) |
Biblioctopus in Los Angeles (see the website) offers for sale a copy described as 'near fine in the rare dust jacket, with small tears and chips to the spine tips and corners neatly repaired, a bit short (an irregularity with nineteenth-century hand-trimmed jackets), but a charismatic jacket still—integral, clean, and one to be owned with pride'. [See this link for their catalogue description].
Indeed, the format of the dust jacket is wrong, and there is more.
The paper is wrong, being white; it should be tan coloured. See the illustration of a copy sold in 2014.
The position of the decoration on the spine is a bit too high, it should be located at 18 mm from the bottom of the spine (whereas on the binding itself it is almost at 2 mm from the bottom of the spine).
This example, obviously, is a cheap photocopy, which will not be owned 'with pride'. The price is US$75,000.00.
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| Dust jacket for Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (19891) [copy sold by Doyle, 2014] |