The National Shakespeare. Comedies

[See also Lot 278]

According to the prospectus, a copy of which is bound in at the front of this copy, this special edition has "india-proof" impressions of the artist's colour illustrations, is "published in three volumes, beautifully bound in morocco, price five guineas per volume". This lot comprises only the Comedies volume (the others are the Tragedies and the Histories). 

Full-bound in heavy dark green morocco boards with five raised spine bands; gilt lettering, rules and design to the spine; gilt lettering, rules and design and blind embossing to the upper and lower boards; deep-depressed large central oval panels to both boards; gilt dentilles, lettering and designs and tooled decorations to both these large panels; and smaller panels at the top and bottom of both boards with gilt designs and lettering of the playwright's years of birth and death. 

Green marbled endpapers with matching binding tape. Top edge gilt. Prospectus printed in two colours. Dedication. The frontispiece with its thin paper guard is a facsimile of the portrait engraving of Shakespeare in the first folio of 1623. xviii (including title-page printed in two colours)+ 303 pp of b/w illustrated text + 7 additional inserted sepia plates with thin paper guards. These plates ilustrate scenes from The Tempest, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Love's Labour lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Merchant of Venice, As you like it, and Twelfe Night, or What you will, reproduced from Noel Paton's originals. (Note: the spellings of the plays are as those reproduced in the volume.)

The National Shakespeare is not a facsimile in the usual sense of a photographic reproduction of the original. Instead, it is "printed in a special antique type, such was actually employed in the First Folio, upon hand-made paper, with rough edges, specially manufactured for this work, to maintain the antique character of the edition". The text, however, "retains all those peculiarities of paging, spelling, and punctuation to which so much interest is now attached".

CONDITION NOTES. Although more than 120 years old, this copy is hardly blemished. The binding remains tight but with every opened leaf lying flat. The boards are lightly rubbed, especially at the corners and spine-ends. The endpapers are as-new and there are no bookplates or other ownership marks. The prospectus is lightly sunned. The frontispiece and its paper guard have a few light foxing spots towards the front and lower page edges, but well clear of the engraved image. The remaining plates and their guards are all present and unfoxed. The rest of the contents is unmarked and undiscoloured.

It is a pleasure to page through and collate as fine as this.