The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare, 1865, edited by Thomas Keightley

The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare, edited by Thomas Keightley.

Published by Bell and Daldy, London, 1865. An uncommon edition. Printed by Chiswick Press - Whittingham and Wilkins.

A good full leather hardback with original covers and spine rebacked on leather. Covers feature elaborate blind embossed decoration with gilt and raised bands. Original leather is heavily worn, particularly to spine. Prize binding from Trinity College, Dublin, dated to 1867.

Marbled endpapers with binders gilt stamp of Hodges, Smith & Co, Dublin, and small bookseller's sticker. Where the rebacking has taken place, the inner joints have been left completely uncovered and worn, so have an unattractive appearance, but the binding is sound. Some exposed areas of boards where endpapers have been damaged when the covers have been detached.

Features a portrait frontispiece of Shakespeare following the first folio portrait of 1623. With foxing to blanks at each end of the book, and the frontispiece and tissue guard.

The text is beautifully clean throughout. Bright and all soundly bound. Shiny gilt edges to the text block.

Despite the book's wear, it has an impressive appearance. A very nice Shakespearean addition to any library shelf.

viii + 943pp + 1pp.

Weight approximately 2.5kg (unpacked).

Approx Dimensions: 

256mm high x 188mm wide x 65mm deep.