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THE WORKS.
(Stratford-on-Avon: Shakespeare Head Press, 1904-07). 268 x 182 mm. (10 3/8 x 7 1/8"). 10 volumes. No. 335 of 1,000 Copies.
EXCELLENT CRIMSON CRUSHED MOROCCO BY SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE (stamp-signed on front turn-ins), raised bands, spine panels with a British heraldic symbol (eagle, three lions, Tudor rose, or rampant lion), gilt lettering, gilt-ruled turn-ins, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, other edges untrimmed. Housed in two red buckram slipcases. Each volume with a frontispiece portrait, with tissue guard, printer's device on title and final pages. Volumes I and X with a small, faint scratch near head of spine, volume VIII with three minute spots in text of two leaves, but A VERY FINE SET, clean and bright inside and out.
This is a lovely copy of the publishing raison d'être of the Shakespeare Head Press, offered in a Sangorski & Sutcliffe binding with Elizabethan overtones in its spine decorations. The Shakespeare Head Press was established by Arthur Henry Bullen (1857-1920) at Stratford-on-Avon in 1904 for the express purpose of printing the first complete edition of Shakespeare to be published in the Bard's birthplace--an idea that he said came to him in a dream. In a move that linked his work to other printers of the Arts & Crafts movement, Bullen obtained equipment from William Morris' Kelmscott Press, including the older of the two presses on which the celebrated Works of Chaucer was printed. Ransom lists 20 titles issued by Bullen before his death. Afterwards, the press was acquired by a group headed by Oxford book dealer Basil Blackwell, and typographer Bernard Henry Newdigate took charge of production and printing. A further 72 privately printed titles were published between 1921 and 1941. Shakespeare Head had a distinguished output that deserves a rank in the second tier of English private presses along with the likes of Golden Cockerel and not much below Ashendene, Kelmscott, and Doves. Our set is distinguished by the work of one of the great 20th century English binderies. After studying under, and then working for, Douglas Cockerell, Francis Sangorski and George Sutcliffe founded their own bindery in 1901 and continued in a successful partnership until 1912. During that year, Francis drowned, and his brother, Alberto, who had been a central figure in producing the firm's vellum illuminated manuscripts, went over to Riviere. Despite these losses, the firm grew and prospered, employing a staff of 80 by the mid-1920s and becoming perhaps the most successful English bindery of the 20th century. (ST18432)
Price: $7,500.00