Writing desk and bed belonging to Oscar Wilde fetch high sums at auction

Irish Post

4 days ago

TWO antique items which once belonged to Oscar Wilde have fetched well over their estimated price at auction.
A desk and a bed formerly owned by the Irish literary icon featured in Fonsie Mealy's Summer Fine Art & Antique Sale which took place on June 19.
The Davenport desk, which was made in 1830, stood in Wilde's study when he lived at 16 Tite Street in west London's Chelsea.
It is believed to have been where he wrote some of his most notable works.
Despite an estimate of €8k the item proved popular among bidders and it eventually sold for €29k.
The Davenport desk which belonged to Oscar Wilde sold for €29k at auction
Dublin-born Wilde moved into Tite Street in 1884 with his wife Constance.
They went on to have two sons whilst living in the property, where they remained until Wilde's arrest and prosecution for 'gross indecency' in 1895.
During his time there, he wrote classics including The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest.
The desk was removed from the house by his friend, the artist Mortimor Menpes, shortly before the court-ordered auction of Wilde's possessions following his trial and imprisonment.
So too was a French bed once belonging to Wilde's mother, which also went up for auction in this month's sale.
A richly carved walnut and ebonised bateau bed, the item, like the Davenport desk, was removed from Wilde's house by Menpes prior to the auction of his possessions on April 24, 1895.
Oscar Wilde's mother's bed sold for €15k at auction this month
'It was originally purchased by Lady Wilde (Oscar Wilde's mother) during a visit to Paris in 1878,' the auctioneers state.
'Believed to have been acquired at the Exposition Universelle - the Paris World's Fair of that year - the bed reflects the grandeur and decorative exuberance of mid-late 19th-century French design,' they add.
'The headboard is surmounted by an exquisitely carved coat of arms for the city of Paris, featuring the city's crest—a ship and three fleur-de-lis—topped by a coronet and framed by an oak branch with detailed leaves and acorns on one side, and a finely rendered stem of laurel on the other.
'Below this, a flowing scroll bears the Parisian motto Fluctuat nec mergitur ('[She] is rocked by the waves, but does not sink'), a symbolic and poetic touch befitting the Wilde family's taste for art, symbolism, and continental flair.'
The bed, which had an estimate of €4k, sold for €15k when it went under the hammer at Fonsie Mealy's auction house in Co. Kilkenny.
See More: Auction, Bed, London, Oscar Wilde, Tite Street, Writing Desk