Beadsley (Aubrey).- An archive of material relating to the purchase of rights relating to Aubrey Beardsley's works by John Lane, c.25 items, including a typed contract letter dated 9th March 1900 and signed by Leonard Smithers selling the rights to drawings by Beardsley along with the stock of books owned by him for £275; 5 typed lists with a few annotations by Smithers listing in detail the rights and stock to be transferred to Lane; Autograph Letter signed by Leonard Smithers to Herbert Jenkins (while working at Bodley Head), regarding the delivery of Beardsley materials to Hodgsons; Autograph Note signed from Matthew Bell regarding books and blocks relating to Volpone; as well as several other notes (some in Smithers hand) relating to sale of the material, a proof pulling of Beardsley's "The Snare of Vintage" and letters from the Riverside Press, Edinburgh and others relating to others Beardsley materials, folds, some splitting with tape-repairs; and 4 others, 3 relating to Malcolm Pinhorn's article "An Important Discovery" and a Anthony D'Offay facsimile of a Yellow Book poster, framed and glazed, v.s. (c.30)*** A fascinating archive of material that details John Lane's attempt to bring the majority of publishing rights relating to Beardsley into his hands.Beardsley and Lane's working relationship had only lasted 2 years until the scandal surrounding Wilde and the widespread public revulsion against the Aesthetic movement, epitomised by Beardsley and Wilde, led to Lane's firing of Beardsley from the Yellow Book in 1895. It may be that Lane felt some degree of guilt surrounding this action, doubtless compounded by the artist's death in 1898, and he seems to have devoted no small amount of energy from 1900 onwards securing as many available rights relating to Beardsley's works as he could. Certainly Lane's printing of Beardsley's works in the early 1900s assisted in rehabilitating the artist's reputation and the beginning of that process is evident in the present archive.