The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1920-05-01
WORLDS cosTLIEsT BOOKS.
First Collected Edition of Shakespeare
Sells for $4,000.

The first collected edition OF Shake
speare's plays, published by Thomas
Pavier in 1919. recently was sold to
book collector in New York City for
500 600, the highest price ever paid for
a book In April 1911, velhum copy
OF the Gutenberg Bible--the first book
printed from movable type-was sold
az the famous Hoe sale for $4,000, the
highest price ever paid up to that
time. This volume continued to hold
this distinction until last July, when
a Book of Hours, once owned by Jeanne
III OF Navarro, brought fli,s00 in
London.
The rarity that holds the new high
record, and doubtless viii hold 1t for
long time, contains nine plays--'a
fourth Of the dramas-each with a
separate title page, as was quite Gus
tomary with collected editions OF the
time. 1t is Il small book, seven by
five and quarter inches, and half
inch thick, bound in Old calf, with the
name Edward Gwynn, celebrated
EHzabethan collector, stamped in the
center OF the front page. The text,
having been plrated from previous
quarters, adds little or nothing 70
shakespearean scholarship. Its value
consists in the fact that 1t is the only
COPY extant. II is historically 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 viii doubtless re-
main our most precious literary treas
ure. 1t has been really that ever since
1923, although it was long time be-
fore IL was so recognized. IL contains
no less than 20 plays of which there is
no earlier text-among them, The
Tempest, AS You Like It." Twelfth
Night . THE Winters Tale,' julius
Caesar" Macbeth" and ''Coriolaus." A
copy OF the first folio now in the Bod.
leian library. oxford, is OF peculiar and
transcendent value because it contains
the most authentic portrait OF shake
speare. engraved by Martin Droeshout,
printed on the title page and appearing
In the most perfect state known. The
lieht and modelling Of the face are Tar
more delicate and expressive, especial
lv about the lips and beneath the eyes,
than as shown by the engraving after
il had become worn and had been
bunrlinglv ret0uched The highest
price ever paid for a first folio was
$4,000 for the Van Antwerp copy, now
in the Harvard library. The four tolios
the Marsden J. Perry sCt-'were re.
Gently sold TO Philadelphia collector
for $4,000.
A century ago the folios and quar-
tos brought only a few pounds each.
Reloe. in his Anecdotes, in 1907, said !;
perhaps there Is no book which has
risen 50 rapidly in value a. the first
edition of the works of our great ma
tional poet. | can remember very
fine copy TO have been sold for hve
guineas."
Percy Fitzgerald, an English author
now living. tells In The Book Fancier,
published in 1896. Of how he brought
together the four folios, within two
years' time. for $50. Henry Stevens.
in his Recollection Of James LenoN,
founder OF, the Lenox library in New
York CITY. saws that in December,
1855. he offered 10 Mr.. Lenox 'in a
lump. 20 qusrtos, all in good condition
and some a them very fine, for $500,
or including a fair set Of the fOlios for
$500. The offer was accepted. and he
became at one step the possessor Of
perhaps the finest Shakespearean COZ
lection in private hands.
The rise in value of the folios and
early ouartos Of Shakespeare and also
Of the early foundation or source play
from which the great drsmstist derived
much OF his material has been very
rapid since the famous Daniel sale in
ls64 II makes beyond doubt the
most interesting chapter in biblio-
grapbical annals.-N Youths Companion.