Shakespeare, Kelmscott (22 results)

328 x 242 mm. (13 x 9 1/2"). Seven volumes. Publisher's deluxe chocolate brown morocco by Riviere & Son (three volumes) or olive brown morocco by Zaehnsdorf (four volumes), sides tooled in gilt with a Grolieresque-style border containing dolphins, fleurs-de-lys, acanthus leaves, and flame tool, raised bands, spine panels with small gilt "X" tool, gilt titling, top edges gilt, other edges untrimmed. With a total of 42 color collotype plates and 99 woodcuts in the text by Albert Rutherston, Norman Wilkinson, Charles Ricketts, Thomas Lowinsky, Paul Nash, and Ernst Stern. Front pastedown with bookplate of John Herbert Bankes and Mary Priscilla Smith. Ransom, p. 12. â Spines sunned to more closely matching shades of brown, leather with other trivial imperfections (just a hint of rubbing, one volume with small traces of insect activity, faint residue from leather preservative), but the bindings in very fine condition, bright, essentially unworn, and making a very pleasing appearance on the shelf. Occasional minor foxing to endpapers or tissue guards, but a clean, fresh, and bright set internally. From a press that was established for the express purpose of printing an edition of Shakespeare in his home town, this is a handsome folio-sized series of Shakespearean plays with text from the First Folio, enhanced with illustrations by leading artists of the day and with bindings from two of the longest-running premier binderies in England. The set comprises: "Cymbeline," illustrated by Albert Rutherston (1923); "The Merchant of Venice," illustrated by Thomas Lowinsky (1923); "Macbeth," illustrated by Charles Ricketts (1923); "Loves Labour's Lost," illustrated by Norman Wilkinson (1924); "A Midsommer Nights Dreame," illustrated by Paul Nash (1924); "Julius Caesar," illustrated by Ernst Stern (1925); and "King Lear," illustrated by Paul Nash (1927). Ransom notes that the first two plays were issued on 23 April, the date of Shakespeare's birth. The Shakespeare Head Press was founded in Stratford by Arthur Henry Bullen in 1904 and was acquired after Bullen's death in 1920 by Basil Blackwell of Oxford (and others), who appointed the distinguished scholar-printer Bernard Newdigate (1869-1944) as typographer. Under Newdigate, the Shakespeare Head Press produced a substantial number of impressive editions, sometimes employing a hand press used by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press. According to Franklin, while under Newdigate's direction, the Shakespeare Head Press "became the most mature and sophisticated of the private presses." Both the Zaehnsdorf and the Riviere workshops opened in the second quarter of the 19th century, and quickly became leading West End binderies, continuing in business well into the 20th century. While individual volumes from the present series appear on the market with some regularity (though not usually in the deluxe binding), complete runs of the seven volumes of the deluxe edition are rarely seen. No. 11 OF 106 SIGNED SETS printed on Batchelor's Kelmscott paper, this being one of 100 copies for sale, from an overall edition limited to 606 copies, each volume signed by the editor Harley Granville-Barker, the art editor Albert Rutherston, and the volume's illustrator.

Vellum with ribbon ties. Condition: Very Good+. William Morris (illustrator). Limited Edition. 8vo. Pp. [vi,] 216. Edited by F. S. Ellis. Woodcut Morris chapter head borders, initials and colophon. Set in Golden Type with section heads, running heads and sonnet numbers printed in red. Bound in limp vellum with overlapping fore edges, olive green ribbon ties, titles stamped in gilt on the spine. Edition limited to 500 on paper.Cover spine and edges moderately darkened, original ties intact with light offsetting to endpapers, top edge dust-soiled, fore-edges minimally age toned, small stain to rear endpapers.Drop-down-back clamshell case in full straight-grain brown morocco, bronze silk sides, spine titles gilt on black morocco labels, gilt rules, five raised bands. One of the scarcer Kelmscotts due to its broad appeal. While 15-or-so copies have appeared at auction in the last ten years, most were afflicted with condition issues, or offered in elaborate bindings. This paper edition is increasingly scarce in the condition at hand, with age-toning to the vellum cover being a characteristic of age. COCKERELL 11; PETERSON A11; RANSOM, p. 326.

Morris, William (illustrator). Octavo. (vi), 216pp. One of 500 copies. Borders and initials by William Morris. Printed in Golden type in two colors. Peterson cites Sidney Cockerell's observation that this title was "one of the rarest books issued from the Press because of its popularity"; despite its relatively large edition size, copies of the Kelmscott Shakespeare remain elusive on the market even today, furthering Cockerell's declaration. This is the Garden copy, with leather book label on front paste-down. Original full limp vellum binding shows light wrinkling to lower front cover and spine head and minimal finger soiling. All terracotta-colored ties intact. Overall, a fine copy, housed in a cloth folding case. (Peterson A11).

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Limited Edition. A FINE COPY OF KELMSCOTT S SHAKESPEARE SHAKESPEARE, William. The Poems of William Shakespeare. Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1893. Octavo, original full limp vellum, silk ties. The superb Kelmscott Press edition of Shakespeare s poems, one of 500 copies printed by William Morris, in lovely original vellum binding. Beautifully printed in red and black type and decorated with woodcut borders and initials. Founded by William Morris in 1891, the Kelmscott Press played a pivotal role in the Arts and Crafts Movement by reviving traditional craftsmanship in book production. Renowned for its meticulous design, typography, and illustration, the press set new standards for fine printing, leaving a lasting impact on the history of book arts in the late 19th century. Cockerell in 1898 described this volume as one of the rarest books issued from the Press because of its popularity (Peterson A11). Ransom, Kelmscott:11. A fine copy of a beautiful production.

Whittington Press (illustrator). folio (15 x 11½ ins). Bound in full green Oasis leather with marbled endpapers by Christopher Rowlatt, with the separate portfolio of leaves, in a solander box. 153 pages. Printed in an edition limited to 180 copies, of which this copy is one of of 45 'A' copies featuring 27 original specimen leaves from the seven Presses. Many of the leaves specially selected for the A edition have wood-engravings, stencil-coloured illustrations and copper-engravings and are double leaves, showing four pages. Three leaves show typefaces specially designed for those presses that continued the tradition of having a proprietary typeface. Copies of the book are accompanied by a portfolio of additional leaves from the presses, chosen specially for this edition. Bound in full green Oasis leather with marbled endpapers by Christopher Rowlatt, with the separate portfolio of leaves, in a solander box. Accompanied by David's informative and authoritative commentary, each leaf offers a first-hand look into the printing quality and typographical genius accomplished by each printer. When paired with Pages from Presses (2006, Whittington Press), they cover perhaps the epitome of fifty years of the British private press movement from Kelmscott on. Pages from Presses II offers a unique opportunity to acquire original leaves from a selection of the books of the major British fine presses that flourished after the First World War. Each volume is designed to be generous in format to show the largest leaves from the Presses without folding. The type used is an elegant 14-Didot size of Walbaum for which the Press owns one of the rare sets of matrices [a change from Volume One which was printed from the smaller 14-point]. The paper is a special making of Czech Losin hand-made [also used in the prospectus] which features the Whittington Press pressmark for the only time. It is likely that this will be the last letterpress printed book published by the Whittington Press. LIST OF LEAVES INCLUDED WITH THE A EDITION: GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS The Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer. 4 vols, 1929-31. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by Eric Gill. Lamia Isabella The Eve of Saint Agnes & Other Poems. John Keats. 1928. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by Robert Gibbings and engraved initials by Eric Gill. The Guinea Series: The Hundredth Story. A. E. Coppard OR When Thou Wast Naked. T. F. Powys OR A German Idyll. H. E. Bates OR Crotty Shinkwin [&] The Beauty Spot. A. E. Coppard OR The Apple Trees. Hugh Walpole. 1931-2. 14-point Golden Cockerel Type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by Robert Gibbings (1 and 4), John Nash (2) and Lynton Lamb (3 and 5). Paradise Lost. John Milton. 1937. 18-point Golden Cockerel Type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by Mary Groom. Endymion: a Poetic Romance. John Keats. 1947. Caslon type. Arnold's hmp. Wood-engravings by John Buckland Wright. GREGYNOG PRESS The Plays of Euripides. 2 vols, 1931. Bembo and Fairbank's italic type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by R. A. Maynard and H. W. Bray. Caneuon Ceiriog Detholiad (The Songs of Ceiriog: A Selection). 1925. Kennerley type. Grosvenor Chater hmp. Wood-engravings by R. A. Maynard and H. W. Bray. The Fables of Esope. 1932. Bembo type. Barcham Green hmp. Wood-engravings by Agnes Miller Parker and wood-engraved initials by William MacCance. Eros and Psyche. Robert Bridges. 1935. Gregynog type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings after designs by Edward Burne-Jones. A leaf from another notable Gregynog Press book. SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS The Whole Works of Homer. 5 vols, 1930-1. Monotype Centaur. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by John Farleigh. The Works of William Shakespeare (The Stratford Town edition). 10 vols, 1904-07. Caslon type. Spicer hmp. The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. 8 vols, 1928-9. Caslon type. Batchelor Kelmscott hmp. Headings and initials designed by Joscelyne Gaskin; hand-coloured pilgrims drawn by Hugh Chesterman. Boccaccio's Decameron. 2 vols, 1934-5. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp. Woodcuts re-cut from the 1492 Venice edition. Woodcut decorative initials based on those in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499). CURWEN PRESS The Legion Book. Edited by H. Cotton Minchin. Privately printed, 1929 (600 copies thus). Lutetia type. Wove paper. Initials in red designed by Jan van Krimpen. Elsie and the Child. Arnold Bennett. Cassell, 1929. Baskerville type. F. J. Head hmp. Stencil-coloured illustrations by Edward McKnight Kauffer. The Curwen Press Miscellany. Edited by Oliver Simon. Soncino Press, 1931. Walbaum type. Wove mould-made paper. NONESUCH PRESS Benito Cereno. Herman Melville. 1926. Walbaum type. Grey Van Gelder paper. Printed at the Curwen Press. Stencil-coloured illustrations by Edward McKnight Kauffer. The Holy Bible. 4 vols, 1925-7. Monotype Plantin. Japon vellum. Printed by Oxford University Press. Copper-engravings by Stephen Gooden. The Anatomy of Melancholy. [Robert Burton]. 2 vols, 1925. Monotype Plantin, with long descenders. Dutch laid paper. Printed by the Westminster Press. Illustrations by Edward McKnight Kauffer. Odyssey. Homer. 1931. Monotype Cochin and Antigone Greek types. Pannekoek mould-made paper. Printed by Enschedé. Ornaments designed by Rudolf Koch. The Nonesuch Century. A. J. A. Symons, Desmond Flower and Francis Meynell. 1936. Monotype Times New Roman. Wove paper. Printed at Cambridge University Press. Illustrations of text and title-pages reset in the original types and printed by CUP. Tipped-in specimens reset and printed by their original printers. HASLEWOOD BOOKS Sailing-ships and Barges of the Western Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. Bernard Windeler. 1926. Koch Kursiv type. Zanders cream laid hmp. Printed at the Curwen Press. Hand-coloured copper-engravings by Edward Wadsworth. A Book of Towers and Other Buildings of Southern Europe. Sacheverell Sitwell. 1928. Bodoni type. Zanders cream laid hmp. Printed by Spottiswoode, Ballantyne. Drypoints by Richard Wyndham. CRESSET PRESS The Apocrypha. 1929. Baskervil.

Whittington Press (illustrator). folio (15 x 11½ ins). Bound in half Nigerian Goatskin and marbled paper by Christopher Rowlatt, in a slipcase. 153 pages. Printed in an edition limited to 180 copies, of which this copy is one of of 40 'B' copies featuring 19 original specimen leaves from the seven Presses. Some of the leaves have wood-engravings, or other illustrations and initials in a second colour, and several are double leaves, showing four pages. Bound in half Nigerian Goatskin and marbled paper by Christopher Rowlatt, in a slipcase. Accompanied by David's informative and authoritative commentary, each leaf offers a first-hand look into the printing quality and typographical genius accomplished by each printer. When paired with Pages from Presses (2006, Whittington Press), they cover perhaps the epitome of fifty years of the British private press movement from Kelmscott on. Pages from Presses II offers a unique opportunity to acquire original leaves from a selection of the books of the major British fine presses that flourished after the First World War. Each volume is designed to be generous in format to show the largest leaves from the Presses without folding. The type used is an elegant 14-Didot size of Walbaum for which the Press owns one of the rare sets of matrices [a change from Volume One which was printed from the smaller 14-point]. The paper is a special making of Czech Losin hand-made [also used in the prospectus] which features the Whittington Press pressmark for the only time. It is likely that this will be the last letterpress printed book published by the Whittington Press. LIST OF LEAVES INCLUDED WITH THE B EDITION: GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS The Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer. 4 vols, 1929-31. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by Eric Gill. Lamia Isabella The Eve of Saint Agnes & Other Poems. John Keats. 1928. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp. Wood-engravings by Robert Gibbings and engraved initials by Eric Gill. The Guinea Series: The Hundredth Story. A. E. Coppard OR When Thou Wast Naked. T. F. Powys OR A German Idyll. H. E. Bates OR Crotty Shinkwin [&] The Beauty Spot. A. E. Coppard OR The Apple Trees. Hugh Walpole. 1931-2. 14-point Golden Cockerel Type. Batchelor hmp. Paradise Lost. John Milton. 1937. 18-point Golden Cockerel Type. Batchelor hmp. GREGYNOG PRESS The Plays of Euripides. 2 vols, 1931. Bembo and Fairbank's italic type. Batchelor hmp. Caneuon Ceiriog Detholiad (The Songs of Ceiriog: A Selection). 1925. Kennerley type. Grosvenor Chater hmp. Wood-engravings by R. A. Maynard and H. W. Bray. Erewhon. Samuel Butler. 1933. Baskerville type. Japanese vellum. Wood-engravings by Blair Hughes-Stanton. SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS The Whole Works of Homer. 5 vols, 1930-1. Monotype Centaur. Batchelor hmp. The Works of William Shakespeare (The Stratford Town edition). 10 vols, 1904-07. Caslon type. Spicer hmp. Boccaccio's Decameron. 2 vols, 1934-5. Caslon type. Batchelor hmp. Woodcuts re-cut from the 1492 Venice edition. Decorative initials based on those in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499). CURWEN PRESS The Legion Book. Edited by H. Cotton Minchin. Privately printed, 1929 (600 copies thus). Lutetia type. Wove paper. Initials in red designed by Jan van Krimpen. Elsie and the Child. Arnold Bennett. Cassell, 1929. Baskerville type. F. J. Head hmp. NONESUCH PRESS Benito Cereno. Herman Melville. 1926. Walbaum type. Grey Van Gelder paper. Printed at the Curwen Press. The Anatomy of Melancholy. [Robert Burton]. 2 vols, 1925. Monotype Plantin, with long descenders. Dutch laid paper. Printed by the Westminster Press. Illustrations by Edward McKnight Kauffer. Odyssey. Homer. 1931. Monotype Cochin and Antigone Greek types. Pannekoek mould-made paper. Printed by Enschedé. The Nonesuch Century. A. J. A. Symons, Desmond Flower and Francis Meynell. 1936. Monotype Times New Roman. Wove paper. Printed at Cambridge University Press. Illustrations of text and title-pages reset in the original types and printed by CUP. Tipped-in specimens reset and printed by their original printers. HASLEWOOD BOOKS A Book of Towers and Other Buildings of Southern Europe. Sacheverell Sitwell. 1928. Bodoni type. Zanders cream laid hmp. Printed by Spottiswoode, Ballantyne. Drypoints by Richard Wyndham. CRESSET PRESS The Apocrypha. 1929. Baskerville type. Cream wove paper. Printed at the Curwen Press. The Shepheardes Calender. Edmund Spenser. 1930. Linotype Granjon. Barcham Green grey laid hmp. Printed by George W. Jones. 19 in total. Bound in half Nigerian Goatskin and marbled paper by Christopher Rowlatt, in a slipcase.

Hard Cover. Condition: Near Fine. C.S. Ricketts (artist) (illustrator). Limited Edition of 210 copies. Hard cover, demi 8vo (measuring 5 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches) Collation:(3),158, (4)pp. With the woodblock printed bookplate of Helen Cecil Minns, and gift inscription in old ink "in memory of Miss Moultrie 1914." Colophon: ".Seen through the Press/ by Sturge Moore/ and decorated /with border designed /and engraved on /the wood by/ C.S.Ricketts, under whose/ supervision the book/ has been printed at/ the Ballantyne/ Press,/ London, /M.D. C.C.C./X.C./I.X. Finely printed upon thick, hand-made paper. Finely bound in green morocco with gilt design on both boards signed by Florence M.E. Paget, associated with the Guild of Women Binders, and a student of the influential British Arts and Crafts bookbinder, Douglas Cockerell. The design consists of concentric gilt bands containing a ruled grid which has intersections featuring alternating small and larger triangles, in a seeming imitation of Edwardian encaustic tile pattern, possibly. The spine has five raised bands, featuring the title and the date 1899 within a similar tile-like pattern. The endpapers are of a green on green diaper pattern. The rear turn-in shows three bands of gilt ruling, with the bookbinder's signature appearing at bottom center: "FP 1902." All edges are gilt. There is also gilt fillet rolled along board edges. Condition: Overall, at least Very Good Plus. There is some minor wear on the exterior, seen along the joints, more so adjacent to the head and foot of the spine. The rear upper corner is moderately rubbed. The spine is a bit darkened, and similar oxidation-caused browning appears to the outer edges of the case. The gilt remains bright ,and there are several (excusable) gilt-obscured printing ink splotches along the rear of the fore edge only seen at a certain angle. This only serves to enhance the wonderful hand-made quality of the item. The interior is firm and bright and fresh, and closer to Fine, with the odd minute rust spot ***A notable feature of this item is the beautiful Charles S. Ricketts-designed border and decorative capital appearing on the title page. It is a particularly beautiful example of Celtic revival design. Ricketts had taken up the baton of William Morris's Arts and Crafts book design in the years following the end of the Kelmscott Press. Ricketts use of the newly designed Avon typeface, or "fount" was introduced with this title. The book was printed on an Albion hand press located on the premises of the Ballantyne Press in November 1899, in a run of 210 copies (and 10 more on vellum). It was reported that the craftsmanship required by the designer resulted in perhaps only1 in four printed pages being accepted for use. The entire print run was sold out pre-publication. Disastrously, a bad fire at the Ballantyne Press in December, 1899 destroyed much of the original materials, drawings, the whole vellum print run, and woodblock carvings for this and other concurrently worked-on volumes of the planned Vale Shakespeare series, a mere month beyond the release of this title. As a result the value of the remaining edition doubled soon thereafter, and it remains quite scarce today. More scarce, indeed, is the presentation of the volume in a binding by one of the more important British women bookbinders of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A Bibliography of the Books Issued by The Vale Press (1904) p. xxvi. M. Watry, "The Vale Press, Charles Ricketts A Publisher in Earnest," ( Oak Knoll/British Library, 2004). B27, and and advertising pamphlet description C43.

Condition: Near fine. Limited Edition. 4to; 9 1/8 x 6 3/4 in. (231 x 173 mm); pp. (iv) + x + 254 + [4 l.]; Caslon type in red and black on hand-made paper, uncut; wood-engraved plate by Reginald Savage, wood-engraved initials by C.R. Ashbee; original limp vellum, with four original silk ties, gilt lettering on spine; minor soiling on vellum and small area of offset on ffp from bookseller ticket, but binding is tight and pages bright and clean. This is no. 112 of a limited printing of 450 copies. Provenance: Ken Tomkinson, High Habberley House, Kidderminster, bookplate loosely inserted. [Butcher p. 265, no. 9; Tomkinson p. 69, no 9]. Kenneth Tomkinson (1918-1985) was the son of Geoffrey Stewart Tomkinson (1881-1963), author of A Select Bibliography of the Principal Modern Presses Public and Private in Great Britain and Ireland, 1928, and he continued his father's private press collection. This volume contains Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, Sonnets, Lover's Complaint, Poems from the Passionate Pilgrim, The Phoenix and Turtle, Lyrics, songs and snatches from the dramas. THE ESSEX HOUSE PRESS, established by Laurence Hodson and C. R. Ashbee in connection with the Guild of Handicraft in 1898, was something more of a communal than a personal affair, yet it was always a reflection of Mr. Ashbee's individual viewpoint It was founded "in the hope to keep living the traditions of good printing that William Morris had revived" and was manned by former employees of the Kelmscott Press (Butcher, p. 41).

Hardcover. 99 pages in text. 32.5 x 24.6 cm. Limited edition, copy 5 of 100. Introduction by Harley Granville-Barker, printed on Batchelor's Kelmscott hand-made paper and bound by Riviere & Son. Line blocks are by Emery Walker. Illustrations by Norman Wilkinson, five full page color colotype plates. Signed by Harley Granville Barker, Norman Wilkinson and Albert Rutherson. Wide text margins. Book label of F.R. Furber (Frank Robert Furber] eminent British golfer. Orig. full brown morocco, raised bands, spines decorated in gilt, rectangular cover panels decorated in gilt motifs and arabesques. Teg. Fine.

First Edition. 7 vols, 8vo; a very good set in the publisher's tan niger morocco by A.W.Bain, borders gilt-filleted, spines lettered directly in gilt, edges uncut, top-edges stained red and gilt on the rough; spots to boards, a few minor scuffs; bookplate of Sherman Kingsbury Ellis to upper pastedown vol.I.First Nonesuch edition, number 220 of 1600 copies, not only handsomely printed and bound but also an important scholarly edition, collating the texts of the First Folio against variants in preceding quarto editions. 'The text is printed litteratim from the First Folio, except in the case of Pericles and the poems which were not included in the Folio and hence are reprinted from the Quartos The Shakespeare represents the chef d' uvre of the Nonesuch Press, and is a model of careful proof reading and imaginative setting. The best of ancient and modern conjectural emendations are unobtrusively set in the margin for the benefit of a glancing eye. This is the finest of all editions of our greatest poet' (The Nonesuch Century). T.E.Lawrence considered the Nonesuch Shakespeare 'a most marvellous pleasure. I have handled it ever so many times, and read The Tempest right through. It satisfies. It is final, like the Kelmscott Chaucer or the Ashendene Virgil. And it is a book which charms one to read slowly, an art which is almost gone from us in these times. Every word which Shakespeare uses stands out glowing. A really great edition Altogether a triumph' (quoted in The Nonesuch Century, pp.47-48). The Nonesuch Century 58; Dreyfus 58.

Full leather. This is the publisher s magnificent, limited, and hand-numbered edition in the style of William Morris s Kelmscott Press, featuring limp vellum with gilt-stamped spine, yapped fore edges, and integral silk ties. The contents are printed on hand-made paper with untrimmed edges printed in red and black with large woodcut initial capitals at each stanza, as well as a woodcut illustration for "Venus and Adonis" by Reginald Savage. Condition is truly fine. The vellum binding is exceptional, showing only the mildest age-toning and trivial hints of soiling. The integral silk ties are present and clean, unsoiled and with wrinkling attendant only to having been tied. The contents are pristine crisp, bright, and immaculately clean with no spotting, soiling, toning, or ownership marks, and with uncut signatures throughout. Per the limitation statement, this text is "According to the text of the earliest editions, arranged, and carefully collated with the originals, by F. S. Ellis, and printed at the Essex House Press under the care of C. R. Ashbee, December, 1899". The limitation statement is hand-numbered "402" of a stated 450 copies.Exceptional condition owes to its protection within a fine paper-lined red cloth chemise, housed within a quarter Morocco slipcase featuring rounded, hubbed, and gilt-printed red goatskin spine over red cloth sides with gilt-rule transition and beveled edge opening. Condition of the slipcase is good plus, unfaded though modestly scuffed and soiled. The contents of the edition are a noteworthy curation. Shakespeare s plays are the most conspicuous aspect of his literary legacy, but, as the poet Robert Graves wrote of Shakespeare, "In the plays we are frequently aware of Shakespeare the poet; in the Sonnets we recognize his role as dramatist." This edition of The Poems of William Shakespeare of course includes the Sonnets, but reaches well beyond them, also including narrative poems, poems from The Passionate Pilgrim, the allegorical poem "The Phoenix and Turtle", and "lyrics, songs and snatches from the dramas".The publisher, the Essex House Press, founded by Charles Robert Ashbee, was an immediate and intentional descendant of Kelmscott Press. William Morris established the Kelmscott Press, which between 1891 and 1898 produced 53 books. "Kelmscott was the culmination of Morris s life as a craftsman in many diverse fields. He set out to prove that the high standards of the past could be repeated - even surpassed - in the present. The books Morris produced were therefore medieval in design, modeled on the incunabula of the fifteenth century Noteworthy for their harmony of type and illustration, Morris' main priority was to have each book seen as a whole: this included taking painstaking care with all aspects of production, including the paper, the form of type, the spacing of the letters, and the position of the printed matter on the page. Kelmscott books re-awakened the ideals of book design and inspired better standards of production at a time when the printed page was generally at its poorest." The Essex House Press was one of "numerous other presses set up to perpetuate Morris' aims." (University of Glasgow)In 1898, when William Morris s famous Kelmscott Press was closing down, Ashbee, who also ran the Guild of Handcraft, acquired two of Kelmscott s Albion printing presses and employed one of the Kelmscott compositors. "Ashbee was keen to carry on the work of Morris s Press." Indeed, "the ink, paper, and vellum are the same as those used in the Kelmscott books". This 1899 edition of Shakespeare s poems is among Ashbee s early efforts in that vein. The Essex House Press moved with the Guild to Chipping Campden in 1902, and produced 84 titles. In 1907 the Press closed, but it was taken over by Ashbee s friend the Sri Lankan philosopher, Ananda Coomaraswamy, and continued until 1910. (The Cheltenham Trust and Ashbee s Essex House Bibliography) Limited, finely bound, hand-numbered edition.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Hardcover. Number 59 of 95 copies of this beautifully printed book. There are 180 copies in this edition: 45 copies numbered I-XLV, 40 copies numbered i-xl; and 95 copies numbered 1-95. Each version has a different binding and a different number of original leaves.This version has 14 original paper leaves. From the press prospectus: "Never before have original leaves from such high points been gathered together in a single volume, and it is unlikely they will ever be again. They will be accompanied by David's informative and authoritative commentary, much praised in the first volume. The book makes an ideal companion to the first volume, and together they cover perhaps the epitome of fifty years of the British private press movement from Kelmscott on. This is a unique opportunity to acquire original leaves from a selection of the books of the major British fine presses that flourished after the First World War. The book gives collectors the feel of the actual pages from these presses in a way no reproduction can achieve, demonstrating clearly the quality of work of each. The leaves are tipped onto guards so that each side is readily accessible and can be turned naturally." In addition to the individual leaves listed below, there is a large fold-out page opposite the title page with the pressmarks of the various presses printed on Batchelor's Crown and Sceptre paper. Bound in half green buckram with light green paper covers with the blind stamped Whittington watermark on the front cover, and with gilt titling to spine. Set in Neil Winter in 14D Walbaum type and printed at Whittington on Losin hand-made paper. Bound by the Fine Book Bindery, Finedon. Housed in a green buckram and cream paper covered slipcase. In fine condition. Measures 11.5 x 15.5 inches. 138 pages including Chronology and Further Reading. PRI/121223 The leaves included in this edition are: Golden Cockerel Press: Pages 75-76 of The Canterbury Tales, with marginal illustrations by Eric Gill. Pages 357-358 of Paradise Lost Pages 51-52 of The Hundredth Story Gregynog Press: Pages 199-200 of The Plays of Euripides Pages 41-44 of Caneuon Ceiriog Detholiad Pages 207-208 of Erewhon Shakespeare Head Press: Pages 153-154 and 159-160 of The Whole Works of Homer Pages 159-160 of The Works of William Shakespeare Curwen Press: Pages 221-222 of The Legion Book Nonesuch Press: Pages 95-96 and 105-106 of Benito Cereno Pages 523-524 of The Anatomy of Melancholy Pages 619-620 of Odyssey Haslewood Books: Pages 193-194 and 207-208 of Tales from Hans Andersen with hand-colored illustration by Hester Sainsbury Cresset Press: Pages 17-18 from The Apocrypha or The Sheheardes Calendar It will be printed in the elegant 14-Didot size of Walbaum for which the Press owns one of the rare sets of matrices [a change from Volume One which was printed from the smaller 14-point]. The paper is a special making of Czech Losin hand-made [also used in the prospectus] which features the Whittington Press pressmark for the only time. It is likely that this will be the last letterpress printed book published by the Whittington Press." Publication Details 15 x 11½ ins, 153 pp., printed in 14D Walbaum on Czech Losin hand-made paper, in an edition of 180 copies.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Special Edition. Number 28 of 106 on Batchelor's Kelmscott hand-made paper, specially bound, and signed by Harley Granville-Barker and Albert Rutherston. Title-page in red and black. 29 line blocks and 5 inserted colour collotypes by Albert Rutherston. Full vellum by Zaehnsdorf, covers ornately gilt, gold top, other edges uncut. A near fine copy. A volume in the Players' Shakespeare series printed by Bernard Newdigate and published by Ernest Benn. 450 standard copies were issued unsigned on rag paper in holland-backed boards.

Limited Facsimile Edition. Good cloth copy in a good if somewhat edge-torn (with some loss) and dust-toned dust-wrapper. Remains quite well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description; 99 p. [5] leaves of plates : ill. (part col.) ; 33 cm. Notes; "The introductions are by Mr. Harley Granville-Barker. The volumes have been printed at the Shakespeare Head Press, Stratford-upon-Avon, under the direction of Mr B. H. Newdigate, and the coloured illustrations have been carried out in facsimile collotype by Messrs Whittingham & Griggs. The line blocks are by Mr Emery Walker. The edition is under the art-editorship of Mr. Albert Rutherston. This volume is illustrated by Mr. Albert Rutherston." -- colophon. "There are two editions. The one, strictly limited to one hundred signed copies for sale and six copies not for sale, numbered repectively 1 to 100 and I to VI, is printed on Batchelor's Kelmscott hand-made paper and bound either in vellum or in oasis morocco by Zaehnsdorf. The other edition, printed on pure rag paper, is strictly limited to four hundred and fifty copies for sale and fifty copies not for sale, numbered respectively 101 to 550 and VII to LVI, of which this is number 529." -- colophon. Title page in red and black. With half-title page. Subjects; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616) Bibliography Folios. 1623. English drama Early modern and Elizabethan, (1500- 1600). Love. Genres; Bibliography. Drama. Illustrated. 1 Kg.

Limited Facsimile Edition. Good cloth copy in a good if somewhat edge-torn (with some loss) and dust-toned dust-wrapper. Remains quite well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description; 99 p. [5] leaves of plates : ill. (part col.) ; 33 cm. Notes; "The introductions are by Mr. Harley Granville-Barker. The volumes have been printed at the Shakespeare Head Press, Stratford-upon-Avon, under the direction of Mr B. H. Newdigate, and the coloured illustrations have been carried out in facsimile collotype by Messrs Whittingham & Griggs. The line blocks are by Mr Emery Walker. The edition is under the art-editorship of Mr. Albert Rutherston. This volume is illustrated by Mr. Albert Rutherston." -- colophon. "There are two editions. The one, strictly limited to one hundred signed copies for sale and six copies not for sale, numbered repectively 1 to 100 and I to VI, is printed on Batchelor's Kelmscott hand-made paper and bound either in vellum or in oasis morocco by Zaehnsdorf. The other edition, printed on pure rag paper, is strictly limited to four hundred and fifty copies for sale and fifty copies not for sale, numbered respectively 101 to 550 and VII to LVI, of which this is number 529." -- colophon. Title page in red and black. With half-title page. Subjects; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616) Bibliography Folios. 1623. English drama Early modern and Elizabethan, (1500- 1600). Love. Genres; Bibliography. Drama. Illustrated. 1 Kg.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Printed in red and black, seven black and white woodcut headpieces by Edward le Bas and Eliot Hodgkin and woodcut printed in green and black at the head of the colophon. 4to. [295 x 225 x 20 mm]. xxii, [ii], 97 pp. Original binding of vellum over bevelled boards, the front cover with a gilt block reproducing an illustration, the spine lettered in gilt, plain endleaves, uncut edges. (Spine and edges of the boards a little rubbed and soiled). Two pages are slightly foxed, but a very good copy. No. 48 of 150 copies printed by Fairfax Hall at his private press at Stourton House, Dacre Street, Westminster, with the help of H. Gage-Cole, pressman [formerly of the Kelmscott and Dove Press], S. Bradshaw and S. Ball. With a loosely inserted letter of compliments from Penelope and Fairfax Hall dated 1948 and a newspaper cutting recording Hall's death in 1981. Roderick Cave described the Stourton Press as a "whale among sprats" in the post-war private press scene, and James Stourton regarded Hall as the last survivor of an era of the private press that lived in the shadows of William Morris and Emery Walker.

LEATHER SPINE GREEN. Condition: VERY GOOD. JACKET: NONE. 3/4 leather bound. Book Condition: Very Good. NO jacket. BW Frontisepiece Volume 8 (VIII): Coriolanus, Romeo and Juliet, Tymon of Athens. The hard cover brown leather on the spine with dark green as the rest. The board is light green. Light yellowing pages with gilt to the top edge. The spine has light wear to the top and bottom of the spine. There is chipping to the top and bottom of the spine cover with minimal rubbing and wear DATE PUBLISHED: 1903 EDITION: 102.

Hard Cover. Condition: Very Good binding. Small quarto. [4], 78, [4] pp. Limited edition, numbered 974 of 1000 copies. As issued, in publisher's cloth-backed boards, top edge gilt. Some minor wear to the head of the spine; light soiling and moderate sunning to the covers; soiling to the front free endaper, but internally, a clean copy of this beautiful production with a Kelmscott-styled opening page border.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Few have heard of the Shakespeare Head Press, although it ranks alongside William Morris's Kelmscott, Emery Walker and Cobden-Sanderson's Doves, Eric Gill's Golden Cockerel and St John Hornby's Ashendene. Its origins date to the 1860s, when a young Arthur Henry Bullen, dreamt of printing the whole of Shakespeare. Making his dream a reality, Bullen founded his the press in 1904 in an old Tudor house, where Shakespeare would have been a guest.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Very Good. 1903 copyright, 3/4 bound leather bound. Boards clean, some edges gently rubbed. Abrasion at lower corner of front board; lower corners rubbed. Spine sunned; rubbed with chipping at head, tiny chip at heel. Gilt lettering still quite bright. Binding just beginning to start at title page, else quite solid and tight. Gilt top stain. Contents clean, bright.

Cloth, 8vo, 227, [1] pp, ills (some colour). From the blurb - "Few have heard of the Shakespeare Head Press although it ranks alongside William Morris s Kelmscott, Emery Walker and Cobden-Sanderson s Doves, Eric Gill s Golden Cockerel and St John Hornby s Ashendene. Its origins date to the 1860s, when a young Arthur Henry Bullen dreamt of printing the whole of Shakespeare. Making his dream a reality, Bullen founded the Shakespeare Head Press in 1904 in an old Tudor house, where Shakespeare would have been a guest. There are many backstories associated with the Shakespeare Head Press and of the perennial 'dashed hopes of small presses' which plagued Bullen. When the Press passed to Basil Blackwell in 1921, Bullen s mantle was assumed by the scholar-printer Bernard Newdigate. For twenty years, he produced a series of finely printed books, yet these were not commercially successful. Blackwell blamed the commodification of literature, and the metamorphoses of books from handcrafted works of art to manufactured objects. A Short and Beautiful Life reconstructs the lives of Bernard Newdigate and A.H. Bullen, and that of the Shakespeare Head Press. For Sir Basil Blackwell, 'the exact record of events was secondary to the universal truths it served to illustrate.' And there is something remarkably contemporary about them." Foreword, by Richard Ovenden, Bodley's Librarian; Preface, by Rita Ricketts; Section 1: A.H. Bullen: His life and early works; 1: A Strayed Elizabethan; 2: Paradise lost and found; Section 2: Bullen's Shakespeare Head Press in Shakespeare's Birthplace; 3: The stuff of dreams; 4: No Small Pleasure; 5: Homewards he stole by Weeping Cross; Section 3: From Avon to Isis, the Shakespeare Head Press goes to Blackwell's of Oxford; 6: Fanfare for the People; 7: Return to Glory; 8: A Pilgrim's Progress; 9: The Black Prince; A Bibliographic guide to SHP publications; Sources and Notes; Endnotes; Index. Near Fine in Near Fine dustwrapper.

Laminated illustrated wrappers, 4to, 27 cm, 366 pp, plates, ills (some colour). 515 lots. Sections included: Sixteenth to nineteenth centuries - Twentieth century - Sir Winston Churchill - Travel and exploration - Entertainment - Art and architecture - Science and economics - Wardington Library literature, English literature: sixteenth century, seventeenth century, eighteenth century, nineteenth century, twentieth century - Library of Vita Sackville-West - New Omar - Kelmscott Press - Ashendene Press - Doves Press - Cranach Press - Eragny Press - Golden Cockerell Press - Nonesuch Press - Shakespeare Head Press - Gregynog Press - Calligraphy and type - Children's books, illustrated books and related drawings. The catalogue includes Lot 95, the Dr. Williams's copy of the Shakespeare First Folio, here described and illustrated on pp 72 -93 (it was still more fully described in a separate 60 page catalogue). The sale also included copies of the Second and Fourth Folios. Upper 8 cm of front joint torn. Scribbled prices and a few notes added for the first half of the sale, otherwise Good. Print-out of prices realized tipped-in.