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Lot 521
Sale 6319 - American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography
May 1, 2025
10:00AM ET
Live / Cincinnati
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Estimate
$500 -
700
Price Realized
$1,800
Sold prices are inclusive of Buyer’s Premium
Lot Description
[LITERATURE]. Autograph album signed by various individuals, incl. Oscar WILDE.
"Companion Autographs" album. Perry Mason & Co., 1877. Approx. 7 x 4 1/4 in., 63pp utilized (includes a mix of facsimile autographs and those compiled by the owner). Album identified to "C. Waldo Baker / 47 Troup St. / Rochester / N.Y." Signatures appear to have been collected ca 1881, and predominantly include members of the Rochester Free Academy Class of 1881. Oscar Wilde signs "Oscar Wilde / May 31st."
Early in his career, Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) embarked on a lecture tour in Canada and America. Throughout 1882, Wilde conducted 141 lectures, two of which were held on May 30 and 31st, 1882, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, a town approximately 135 miles away from Baker's hometown of Rochester, New York. It is seems likely that Baker attended the May 31, 1882, lecture, at which Wilde signed Baker's autograph album.
Baker was born in Rochester ca 1865, and is identified in multiple Rochester City Directories as a student in the 1880s then a teacher in 1887.
This lot is located in Cincinnati.


