The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [In Two Volumes]

Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1936. First Edition Thus/Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine [Textblock Fine] in Good+ Slipcase.. Light toning to vellum labels, bookplate of noted Kent collector Eliot Stanley at front pastedowns (printed by Anthoennsen Press), touch of toning at endpages (as typical), else tight, bright and unmarred. Slipcase shows light/moderate shelf/edge wear, wear at fore-edge, most seams split, all seams reinforced with Japanese hinge paper at inside, several small bits of tape at upper seams, moisture spotting at top and onlay, else clean. Blue beveled cloth boards, vellum spine labels, gilt lettering and decorative elements, frontispiece(s), teg. 4to. 1527pp. Illus. (b/w plates). Limited numbered edition, this being 543 of 750, signed by Kent.

The Cambridge Edition text, edited by William Wright. Preface by Christopher Morley. Each play is illustrated with a full page plate by Rockwell Kent (titled at verso). Designed by A.P. Tedesco and printed at the Country Life Press. Infamous for a slipcase with paper seams (unreinforced, no cloth, etc) so prone to failure it is nearly impossible to find intact/undamaged. Noted flaws to the slipcase notwithstanding, a very handsome set. (Inventory #: 5505)