* The 17th-century works will be accompanied by a first collected edition of Shakespeare’s Poems
* The esteemed works will head to the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair which runs from April 27 to 30
* We feel hugely privileged to be able to offer these landmark works for sale in the 400th anniversary year of the First Folio
* We cannot recall the last time in living memory that a bookseller offered all four folios and the poems for sale at the same time
By Abby Montanez, Robbreport.com
It’s been 400 years since William Shakespeare’s First Folio was published. To commemorate the anniversary, a group of his rare 17th-century editions is up for grabs.
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The five impressive volumes—which comprise four folios, plus a first edition of poems—are being offered by Peter Harrington, a leading rare bookseller based in London.
In the coming weeks, the esteemed works will head to the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair which runs from April 27 to 30. The folios and collected poems can be purchased individually, although, for US$10.5 million, you can get the whole package.
“We feel hugely privileged to be able to offer these landmark works for sale in the 400th anniversary year of the First Folio being published,” says Pom Harrington, owner of Peter Harrington, in a press statement.
“We cannot recall the last time in living memory that a bookseller offered all four folios and the poems for sale at the same time; the last time the works appeared as a collection was when it was offered by an auction house more than 20 years ago.”
Leading the sale at $7.5 million is the First Folio, which was published in 1623 by two of the Bard’s fellow actors. It’s considered to be one of the most important books in English literature, next to the King James Bible.
The tome contains all but one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays; it’s also the first printed source for works including Macbeth and The Tempest.
“The attraction of this copy is the early binding and the freshness of the contents,” Harrington explains. “There are a few marks left by early readers, but the French linen paper still has a wonderful crisp texture, unlike so many copies that were washed and pressed flat in the 19th century.”
Also available is the Second Folio, priced at $550,000 and known for featuring the first published poem by John Milton, entitled My Shakespeare.
According to Harrington, the Third Folio is the rarest of the volumes as the majority of copies were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1966. To date, there are only two other copies that remain in private hands. Naturally, it has a standalone price of $1.5 million.
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The Fourth Folio was published in 1685, the last of the 17th-century editions, and is listed at $225,000, of which Harrington said: “I’ve already been asked several times if we foresee a single collector buying them all. The Four Folios have sold to a single buyer before, so I would not rule it out.”
Considerably smaller in size but even rarer than the Folios are the Poems, on sale for $750,000. As it stands, there are a mere 64 copies in existence and only five in private hands.
The volume contains all but eight of the playwright’s 154 sonnets, in addition to shorter compositions and an appendix of poems by Milton, Ben Johnson, Francis Beaumont, and Robert Herrick.
“Together with the Poems, possessing any of the four Folios would be the greatest prize for any significant rare book collector,” says Harrington. “And owning them all is obviously a huge coup.”
The volume also includes an appendix of poems By other Gentlemen, such as Ben Jonson, John Milton, Francis Beaumont, and Robert Herrick. This copy was in Italy at an early date; it has the ownership inscription of an Englishman in Rome, dated 1664/5.
“We feel hugely privileged to be able to offer these landmark works for sale in the 400th anniversary year of the First Folio being published. We cannot recall the last time in living memory that a book seller offered all four Folios and the Poems for sale at the same time.
“The last time the works appeared as a collection was when it was offered by an auction house more than 20 years ago. I’ve already been asked several times if we foresee a single collector buying them all. The Four Folios have sold to a single buyer before, so I would not rule it out.”
English playwright, poet and actor, William Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist.
He is often called England’s national poet and the ‘Bard of Avon — or simply ‘the Bard’. His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship.
His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna and twins Hamlet and Judith.
Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres.
He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language.
In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of Shakespeare’s plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy in his lifetime.
However, in 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare’s, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare’s dramatic works that included all but two of his plays.
Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: “not of an age, but for all time”.
At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare’s private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.—Additional info from Wikipedia
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