Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare.

London. B. T. Batsford Ltd., [1936]. First edition thus. Decorated, purple cloth-bound hardback, unclipped dust jacket. 96 pages. 32 hors-texte black-and-white collotype plates and 8 mounted colour plates, reproducing Messel's original drawings. 290 x 215mm (11½ x 8½").

In 1936, English artist and stage designer Oliver Messel designed the set and costumes for the film of Romeo and Juliet produced by MGM in Hollywood, starring Norma Shearer (to whom the book is dedicated) and Leslie Howard. This charming edition of the play was published as a souvenir of Messel's work on the film, and the text is accompanied by high-quality reproductions of the original set and costume drawings created by Messel.

'To preserve the quality of the work, only a small edition of the book is being printed, and this is likely to soon by exhausted, forming as it does an ideal Christmas gift to any lover of the stage and Shakespeare and to anyone interested in a sympathetic interpretation by one of England's most brilliant designers.' (from the publisher's prospectus on the front flap of the dust wrapper).

Condition

Good book in like dust wrapper. Wear to lettering on spine, with discolouration and a little fraying to tips and corners, a few spots of foxing to prelims and edges, boards a little uneven. Strong joints and hinges with pages tightly bound. A small inscription to FFEP, reading "Jean Harvey"; upon further research, this could be English actress Jean Harvey, known for her roles in Jane Eyre and Ben Travers' Farces, who passed away in 2014, but this is in no way a proven connection. There is light offsetting to prelims and tanning to page extremities. All plates present in good order, if ever-so-slightly crinkled. The dust wrapper is worn and unevenly tanned and marked, with a couple of stains to spine, significant nibbling to extremities, tears to spine and several areas of small loss; not price-clipped, and shows price 21s. net to front flap. The wrapper is now placed in a removable, protective sleeve of archival quality and holds together nicely.