SHAKESPEARE, William.

£1,250 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The National Shakespeare. First edition thus, reproducing the text and orthography of the First Folio and splendidly illustrated with plates after Joseph Noël Paton (1821-1901), whose best work was Shakespearean in subject. Paton's paintings The Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania and The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania are pre-eminent examples of the genre of Victorian fairy painting. His initial success, however, was in the realm of illustration; in 1845 he illustrated The Tempest. The preface explains that The National Shakespeare was printed as a response to Ignatius Donnelly's contention that Francis Bacon was the true playwright and left ciphers in the text. "The text will be a scrupulously accurate reproduction" of that of the 1623 folio "to which so much interest is now attached".This set belonged to Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie, whose inscribed bookplate is in Tragedies. Craigie (1867-1906), wrote novels and drama under the name John Oliver Hobbes. Her first play, Journeys End in Lovers' Meeting (1894), took its title from a line from Twelfth Night.

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.