#OSCAR WILDE BAR CHELSEA TRIAL#

Most of the lots, including copies of his own books (Fig.2), went for knock-down prices. The public humiliation of the auction must only have been intensified by the fact that the money raised (around £130) was not enough to cover Wilde’s considerable debt. The subsequent auction of his belongings was intended to raise money to pay off Wilde’s debts, including the £677 awarded to Queensbury for legal expenses.

#OSCAR WILDE BAR CHELSEA TRIAL#

Wilde was arrested on the 5th April and the following day charged with offences under the Criminal Law Amendment Act (1885), section XI.ĭenied bail, Wilde was in prison awaiting trial when his creditors took possession of his house at 16 Tite Street in Chelsea. The matter did not end there, however, as Queensbury’s lawyers passed their evidence on to the public prosecutor. By the start of April, when the matter went to court, Queensbury had found witnesses who supported his claim against Wilde and he was found not guilty. Wilde, perhaps ill-advisedly, took out a warrant against him for criminal libel.

This was not to last, however, as on the 28th February the Marquess of Queensbury, father of Wilde’s lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, accused Wilde of “posing as a somdomite”. Both plays met with public acclaim and, after more than a decade in the public eye, Wilde seemed to have arrived. Wilde’s 1895 began on a high note: An Ideal Husband premiered at the Haymarket Theatre on the 3rd of January, followed by The Importance of being Earnest at St James’s Theatre on St Valentine’s Day. Despite no mention of Wilde’s name on the title page (Fig.1) or anywhere else in the text, this catalogue lists the contents of his family home which were sold to the highest bidder at one o’clock on Wednesday the 24th April in 1895.

One of only five known copies, the volume poignantly illustrates the extent of Oscar Wilde’s descent from the zenith of his career at the start of 1895 to his complete ruin only a few short months later. This tatty sixteen page pamphlet is one of the most surprising and rare treasures of the Robert Ross Memorial collection.

Oscar wilde bar chelsea