Estimate: | £500 - £800 |
Hammer price: | £900 |
NONESUCH PRESS - William SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616). The Works ... The text of the First Folio with Quarto variants and a selection of modern readings: edited by Herbert Farjeon. [London]: The Nonesuch Press, 1929-33. 7 volumes, large 8vo (235 x 150mm). Titles within ruled borders with small woodcut ornaments. Original full niger morocco by A. W. Bain, the covers with double gilt-ruled fillets, the spines with five raised bands and lettered in gilt, top edges gilt, others uncut (some very light scratching and scuffing to covers). ONE OF 1,600 COPIES, THIS NUMBER 798 OF 1,050 COPIES FOR SALE IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. The limitation leaf states: "This edition consists of 1,050 copies for sale in Great Britain & Ireland and 550 copies for sale in the United States of America. It has been designed by Francis Meynell, printed and made in England by Walter Lewis, M.A., Printer to the University, at the Cambridge University Press, in Monotype Fournier with new capital letters made for this edition, and bound in London by A. W. Bain." Nonesuch Century 58: "The Shakespeare represents the chef d' oeuvre of the Nonesuch Press ... This is the finest of all editions of our greatest poet"; Ransom Private Presses p.169. (7)