The Poems of William Shakespeare according to the text of the original copies, including the lyrics, songs, and snatches found in his dramas; according to the text of the original copies, including the lyrics, songs, and snatches found in his dramas
London: Essex House Press / Edwrd Arnold, 1899. 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 pasted on first fly-leaf.
[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).
Condition: Near fine.
Item number: 438
Price: $2,000.00
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