Wilde (Oscar) and Aubrey Beardsley.- Contract letters, agreed and signed by Wilde and Beardsley with publishers Elkin Mathews and John Lane, together 5pp. on Holyrood watermarked paper, 6d. stamps to each contract, each hole-punched at head, some repaired splitting at folds, tape residue to verso, folds, window-mounted together, framed and glazed, 8vo, 8 June and 3 August, 1893.*** Contracts for the publication of Salomé, one of the most important literary and artistic collaborations for the period and for the publication of Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance and The Duchess of Padua as well as the unrealised enlarged version of The Portrait of Mr W.H.Wilde wrote the original French version of Salomé while living in Paris in 1891. He submitted the completed work to Sarah Bernhardt who agreed to include the production in her 1892 season at the Royal English Opera House. Rehearsals were underway in June 1892 when word came that the Lord Chamberlain had withheld his licence, ostensibly on the grounds that the play depicted biblical characters. This resulted in an indefinite hiatus for the play (Wilde would never see a performance of his work) and in the publication of numerous letters, essays, poems and cartoons both in support and opprobrium of the play and Wilde. Elkin Mathews and John Lane had published an edition of Wilde's Poems in May 1892 (the first work by any author to be published under the joint imprint) and were clearly keen both to capitalise on the furor surrounding the play and to cement their relationship with its author, publishing the first edition of the play (in French), in February 1893. The publication of Salomé was itself an event given the extensive discussion of the cancelled run in the previous year. Several literary periodicals took special notice of the event, including the Pall Mall Budget whose editor, Lewis Hind, commissioned the young Beardsley to create a picture inspired by the work or its author. The resulting picture of Salomé, embracing the severed head of John the Baptist, was seemingly too strong for Hind but was published instead in the first issue of the Studio magazine in April, 1893. Wilde was impressed by the drawing and an introduction between the pair was arranged by their mutual friend Robert Ross. The enthusiasm of Wilde for Beardsley's work, along with the desire of Mathews and Lane to continue their relationship with the author, is evident in the present contract being dated 8 June, just 2 months after the issue of The Studio appeared, and in the agreed sum of 50 guineas, a considerable fee for the young artist. Wilde's contract too shows the enthusiasm of the publishers to work with the author and to agree to his choice of designers (Ricketts, Shannon and Beardsley) and other collaborators. Ultimately the revelations made in the trial led to the publishers parting ways with the author and their edition of The Duchess of Padua along with the extended Portrait of Mr W.H. would never appear. Together these contracts show the considerable influence of Wilde a mere 2 years before his downfall.