THE TRAGEDIE OF HAMLET PRINCE OF DENMARKE. Edited by J. Dover Wilson Litt.D. from the text of the second quarto printed in 1604–5 'according to the true and perfect coppie'. With which are also printed the Hamlet stories from Saxo Grammaticus and Belleforest and English translations therefrom. Illustrated by Edward Gordon Craig. by SHAKESPEARE, William; illustrated by CRAIG, Edward Gordon; edited by WILSON, J. Dover:

Weimar: Printed by Count Harry Kessler at the Cranach Press. 1930. First English Cranach edition, number 255 of 300 copies printed on Maillol hand-made paper, from an overall edition limited to 322. First English Cranach edition, number 255 of 300 copies printed on Maillol hand-made paper, from an overall edition limited to 322. Folio. Publisher's original linen-backed boards with printed paper title label to the spine. Page edges untrimmed. Title cut by Eric Gill, printed in red and black. The type designed by Edward Johnston, with headlines, colophon and occasional headings printed in red. Illustrated with eighty expressionist wood-engravings designed and cut by Edward Gordon Craig, two with additional colour. "Notes on The Tragedie of Hamlet" by J. Dover Wilson in original paper wrappers contained within a pocket at the rear. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with some uneven toning and light spotting to the boards and bumping to the corners. The contents, with a little toning and spotting to the endpapers, light scattered foxing to pp.162-171 and a few odd spots to the edges of the textblock are otherwise clean and bright throughout. Housed in a bespoke, quarter black morocco solander case. One of the most remarkable printed books of the twentieth century, this meticulously planned and elegantly executed edition of Hamlet was the crowning achievement of the celebrated Cranach Press - the pre-eminent private press of Weimar Germany and the embodiment of its spirit of vibrant artistic and literary experimentation. The Cranach Hamlet was the brainchild of Count Harry Kessler (1868-1937), the founder of the press, who began the work in 1912, commissioning Edward Gordon Craig to produce a series of illustrations which were to be printed at the press using the woodblocks of Craig's "black figures" and accompanied with specially designed type. The outbreak of the First World War, however, saw work on the book suspended, with Craig then becoming distracted by other projects. This ultimately meant that the work was not issued for nearly 20 years, with the German edition appearing in 1929 and the English in 1930, the latter including some additional engravings. When it finally appeared it was a masterpiece of printing and design, the artistry of the physical book, conceived and executed with such insight, serving to complement and enhance the drama of Shakespeare's text perfectly. The illustrations themselves visually captured many of Craig's ideas for the theatre, with its "screens" or "scenery" formed by blocks of engraved lines and simple draped figures in different sizes creating a sense of theatrical space. Craig's son, Teddy, went to Weimar to assist the master-printer, Gage Cole, in the printing of the woodblocks: "I was the only person who knew how to get the kind of impression required, showing the delicate side grain of wood and at the same time producing the specially blackened details in certain blocks" (Edward Craig. Gordon Craig: The Story of His Life p. 326). According to the colophon, the type font, designed by Edward Johnston, was based on that "used by Fust and Schoeffer in their Mainz Psalter of 1457." In fact, the model was the 1462 Bible font of Fust and Schoeffer, modified with roman capitals. "The bravest adventure among all private press books", the work, according to Franklin stands as "a flawless monument" to its creators (Franklin, The Private Press, p,164). The painter William Rothenstein concurred, writing to Kessler to congratulate him on such a "triumph", declaring that he considered it to be "one of the great books, to my mind easily the most important book since Morris's Chaucer". Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.