William Shakespeare, 1853-1865

SHAKESPEARE, William (1564-1616) – James HALLIWELL (1820-1889, editor). The Works. London: for the editor by C. and J. Adlard 1853-1865.

Extra-illustrated limited edition of Shakespeare’s complete works, this being number 48 of 150 sets printed for subscribers only. 38 volumes sumptuously bound in full morocco and augmented with delightful watercolor vignettes from the plays. Edited by James Halliwell, the eminent Shakespearian scholar and collector, this work was considered by Jaggard to be “the most extensive repository of literary, historical, and archaeological information regarding Shakespeare and his writings to be found in any single work, and, typographically, the most sumptuous edition.” Illustrated with 142 plates and numerous in-text woodcuts, the present set is profusely extra-illustrated with watercolor scenes depicting scenic and dramatic elements from the texts, such as Yorick’s skull in Hamlet and a monstrous Caliban in The Tempest. It is accompanied by an autograph letter from the editor, presumably to the original subscriber the Hon. Edward Curzon, shortly before the delivery of the tenth volume, in which he enquires about preferences for the printing of the remaining volumes and laments the “large & unfair pecuniary loss” he has sustained by the endeavor. Jaggard p.529.

16 volumes bound in 38, folio (370 x 245mm). 142 plates, numerous woodcuts in the text, many additional watercolor vignettes mostly in the margins of the play-texts probably executed at the time of binding (minor repair to tear in 50.2 in vol. I, occasional faint spotting). Early 20th-century red morocco, sides and spines elaborately gilt-decorated and with green morocco onlays of flowers and tragic and comic masks, turn-ins similarly gilt, green morocco doublures splendidly inlaid with pink, red, and green morocco rose designs surrounding central Shakespeare family arms, silk endpapers, all edges gilt (extremities faintly rubbed in places). Provenance: The Honourable Edward Cecil Curzon, 1812-1885 (listed as the recipient of set 48 in the numbered subscribers lists).

[Sold with:] autograph letter signed (“J. O. Halliwell”) to [the Hon. Edward Curzon] (“To my Shakespeare Subscribers”), 6 St. Mary’s Place, West Brompton, London, 11 October 1861. Three pages, bifolium, 180 x 112mm.