![]() ![]() They were picked up in a London junk shop for a pittance during the Fifties by a private collector whose widow is now selling them at Christie's on 6 June. The 52 pages of statements from 32 witnesses have never been published and are hand-written on heavy sheets of paper. It was inscribed with the words: 'For Oscar Wilde posing Somdomite '. Wilde took legal action against the Marquis, father of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, after he found a visiting card left by Queensberry at the Albermarle club. Seedy descriptions of Wilde's bedroom are included in the damaging file, which was instrumental in Wilde's downfall and formed the background for one of the most famous cases in British legal history. While Wilde is remembered today as the dandy-about-town, sporting bespoke suits and habitually wearing a green carnation in his buttonhole, these statements - from chamber-maids, valets, bell-boys and even a lamp-wick seller portray his private life in lurid detail. ![]()
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