£400 - £500
(THE VALE PRESS : CHARLES RICKETTS.) T. Sturge Moore (edited): 'The Vale Press Shakespeare [Edition Limited to 310 Copies only].', London, The Ballantyne Press for Hacon & Ricketts, 1900-1903, Tall 8vos, 38 vols (ex 39 : see note below), original green cloth bindings designed by Charles Ricketts, the spines lettered in gilt, the sides with elegant blind-stamped designs.
Each volume with a different striking typographic layout for the half-title designed by Ricketts : and with decorative series titles and title-pages, and with numerous decorative floral borders, all also designed by Ricketts.
Gilt-lettered backstrips just slightly dulled, the blind-stamped cloth sides immaculate bar slight wrinkle to covers of Henry V.
The texts, unopened throughout, exceptionally clean and crisp bar foxing to 12pp near the start of The Winter’s Tale.
310 Copies only : printed at the Ballantyne Press on hand-made paper on a special handpress. The volumes were issued monthly over a period of three years. This set lacks The Tragedy of Hamlet, much the scarcest of all the volumes.
The Avon Types, designed specifically by Ricketts for the Vale Shakespeare, were cut by the renowned Edward Prince. On closing the press the following year, Ricketts threw the original punches and matrices into the Thames to protect them from commercial use.
The Shakespeare is by far the most ambitious of the Vale Press editions.
Franklin in The Private Presses describes the Vale Shakespeare as ‘an immense achievement’ and notes the ‘precise and delicate line’ of Ricketts’ border designs.
Cave in The Private Press notes that Vale Press books were 'designed throughout by Ricketts, from the watermark through the typeface, decoration, wood engravings, mise-en-page, and bindings’; and that Ricketts’ designs reveal the ‘sophistication, eclecticism, and very highly mannered qualities of the best British Art Nouveau work’. (38)
Fees apply to the hammer price:
Free Registration
25.6% inc VAT*
Flat Fee Registration
22.00% inc VAT*
