Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1920-04-22
WORLDS COSTLIEST BOOK
F1r~t Collected Edition OF Shakespeare
Sells for S1OOOOO
(From the Youths Companion)

tFrom the Youths Companion)
The first collected edition OF Shake
speare's plays. published by Thomas Pa
vier In 1919. recently was sold TO book
collector in New York city for SlO,OpO-
the highest price ever paid for book.
In April. 1911. vellum copy of the Gut
enberg Bible-the first book printed from
movable type-was sold at the famous Hoe
sale for $4,000. tie highest price ever paid
up to that time. This volume continued
70 hold this distinction until last July.
when q Book of Hours. once owned by
Jeanne H. Of Navarro, brought Gu,s0o In
London.
The rarity that holds the new high
record. and doubtless will hold 1t for a
long time. contains nine plays-a fourth
Of the dramas-each with separate title
page, as was quite customary with col
lected editions of the time. 1t Is a small
book. seven by Ave and a quarter inches.
and a half inch thick. bound in old calf.
with the name Edward Gwynn. a cele-
brated Elizabethan collector. stamped In
the center of the front cover. The text,
having been pirated from previous quar-
tos. adds little or nothing to Shakespear-
can scholarship. Its value consists In the
fact that It Is the only copy extant. 1t
is historically interesting from the fact
that 1t was printed by Isaac Jaggard. who
four years later published the first folio
Although the first collected edition must
be called the worlds costliest book. the
| first folio will doubtless remain our most
precious literary treasure. 1t has been
really been that ever since 1923, although
II was a long time before IL was so rec
! ognized. 1t contains no less than % plays
of which there is no earlier text-among
| A., 4, IT, 81 =,
Night. The Winters Tale, julius Caesar,
Macbeth and Coriolanus. A copy Of the
first folio now in the Bodleian Library,
! Oxford, is of peculiar and transcendent
value because it contains the most au-
thentic portrait of Shakespeare. engraved
by Martin Droeshout, printed on the title
page and appearing in the most perfect
state known. The light and modelling OF
the face are far more delicate and ex.
pressive, especially about the lips and
beneath the eyes, than as shown by the
engraving after it had become worn and
had been bunglingly retouched. The high
est price ever paid for first folio was
$4,000 for the Van Antwerp copy. now ir
the Harvard Library. The four folios--
the Marsden ]. Perry set-were recent,
sold to a Philadelphia collector for S75
900.
A century ago the folios and quarto!
brought only a few pounds each. Belize
in his Anecdotes, in 1907 said: Perhaps
there is no book which has risen so rap
idly In value as the first edition of thu
works Of our great national poet. I cal
remember very fine copy to have beer
sold for Ave guneas."
Percy Fitzgerald, an English author nov
living. tells in The Book Fancier. publish
ed in 1886. of how he brought together thu
four folios, within two years time, TO
ESQ. Henry Stevens. in his Recollection
of James Lenox. founder OF the Leno,
Library in New York city. says that il
. December, 1885. he offered to Mr.. Leno,
lin a lump, 40 quartos. all in good condi
ton, and some of them very fine, for 6 500
! or including "A fair set Of the foios 70
G6oo. The offer was accepted. and he be
came at one step the possessor of perhap
the finest Shakespearean collection in pri
vate hands.
The rise in value of the folios and earl!
: quartos of Shakespeare and also of tn
early foundation or source plays from
which the great dramatist derived much o
{ his material has been very rapid sine
the famous Daniel sale in 1864. 1t make
beyond a doubt the most interesting chap
ter in photographed annals