Macbeth (Lettered)

Macbeth by William Shakespeare. London: The Folio Society, 2007. The third volume to be published in Folio's Letterpress editions of Shakespeare's Great Tragedies. Limited to 3,750 hand-numbered copies and 25 lettered Hors D' Commerce copies. This is part of the 25 lettered copies and is lettered R, having belonged to the principal craftsman who dressed leather for The Folio Society (as well as this edition) for close to 15 years. 

Dark red two-volume buckram-bound solander box, leather spine-label titled in gold, in which the following two volumes are contained: 

[1] [Reading Volume] William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Edited by Nicholas Brooke. 355 × 255 × 19 mm. Pp. 136. Printed in the ever-so-elegant 16pt 'Monotype' Baskerville with Caslon for display. Typeset by Stan Lane of Gloucester Typesetting Services. Printed letterpress on a Heidelberg press by craft printers Offizin Haag-Drugulin of Dresden on Zerkall mould-made paper. Bound by hand in the small craft bindery of Lachenmaier in Germany in quarter Nigerian goatskin leather which has been dyed to an exact scarlet match, with hand-marbled paper boards by Ann Muir that are unique to each volume, and top edge trimmed and gilded, while the other two edges remain feathered (deckle) at sides; dark red endleaves.  The spine (and the separate leather label for the solander box) is hand-blocked in 22-carat gold. The text is based on the edition originally published by the Clarendon Press in 1990. 

[2] [Commentary Volume] William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth. Edited by Nicholas Brooke. 222 × 143 × 26 mm. Pp. 416. Published ‘By arrangement with Oxford University Press'. Printed by the Saint Edmundsbury Press. Bound in full dark red buckram with paper label on front board; dark red endleaves. To ensure the reading volume remains uncluttered by notes, a separate commentary volume reproduces the Oxford University Press text with full glossing notes and illuminating introductions. Under the General Editor, Stanley Wells, these texts have become a byword for accuracy and erudition, making them one of the most respected of all academic editions of Shakespeare. This volume is inserted in a recess in the box, beneath the first volume and a loose board papered in dark red.

Provenance

This edition comes from the personal library of Mr John Riches who dressed leather for The Folio Society for almost 15 years between early 2000s and 2015, and supplied the binders they nominated. Mr Riches worked on the leather of this edition.

Condition

Near-fine with only a light, innocuous bump to one corner; else fine. In like solander box with lightest of shelf-wear and a couple of small bumps. A lovely opportunity to acquire an edition that belonged to one of the main contributors to the project.