?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
UNIQUE PRESENTATION COPY (CRANACH PRESS.) Shakespeare, William. The Tragedie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke. Printed in red and black; one page with blue. Typography arranged by Harry Kessler and designed by Edward Johnston and cut by Edward Prince; title-page designed by Eric Gill. 80 elegant woodcut illustrations by Edward Gordon Craig printed in black and grey by H. Gage-Cole. Folio, full red morocco gilt by O. Dorfner (signed on rear turn-in), mild discoloration to outer edge of front cover, darker spotting to same area of rear cover, head of spine slightly bumped, a bit rubbed ,and with a small scuff; gilt turn-ins; top edges trimmed and gilt, foxing and occasional mild soiling to deckle with occasional bleed into margins, endpapers and pocket also lightly foxed; custom 1/4 gilt-lettered burgundy morocco and cloth folding box, lined in suede; the 35-page 'Notes on the Text of Shakespeare's Hamlet, 1604' normally inserted in the rear cover pocket is bound separately in parchment-backed wooden boards, and is printed on Japan Vellum, which was issued for 15 copies printed on that paper in this English language edition; original prospectus laid in. Weimar, 1930
one of 300 copies on maillol-kessler handmade paper, this is an out-of-series presentation copy for count kessler's sister: "This copy not for sale; it was printed for Wilma Marquise de Brion." His sister was 9 years his junior and named after Kaiser Wilhelm I who became her Godfather. The first English language edition; Kessler had issued a German edition the previous year (a facsimile prospectus for this edition printed by Gallery 303 accompanies this lot and is laid into the slipcase). One of the most strikingly beautiful illustrated books of the twentieth century. A Horne, Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators, page 154; The Artist and the Book 66; Ransom 253.
