TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE

First edition with these illustrations. Signed deluxe edition. Publisher's original white buckram with titles in gilt to the upper board and spine. Top edge gilt. All four original red cloth ties present as called for. Illustrated with 13 full page colour plates, two full page black and white illustrations, 20 chapter headings and 14 tail-pieces by Arthur Rackham. An excellent example, the binding square and firm with just a little light marking to the cloth. The contents, with some patina to the vellum endpapers, the bookplate of Amy Beatrice Huntington to the blank reverse of the front endpaper and another of H. C. Drayton opposite, are otherwise fine, clean and bright throughout. Housed is a bespoke blue cloth solander case.

Limited to 750 copies of which this is hand numbered 178 and signed by Arthur Rackham on the limitation page. This deluxe edition contains an additional colour plate not included in the trade issue. A beautifully illustrated collection of 20 comedies and tragedies retold in the prose of Charles and Mary Lamb aimed at making Shakespeare accessible to younger readers. Comprising The Tempest; A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Winter's Tale; Much Ado about Nothing; As You Like It; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; The Merchant of Venice; Cymbeline; King Lear; Macbeth; All's Well that Ends Well; The Taming of the Shrew; The Comedy of Errors; Measure for Measure; Twelfth Night; or, What you Will; Timon of Athens; Romeo and Juliet; Hamlet, Prince of Denmark; Othello; and Pericles, Prince of Tyre.