SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS AND POEMS, 1825 PICKERING "WREATH" EDITION, HANDSOMELY BOUND, THE HOE COPY

SHAKESPEARE. The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare. London: William Pickering. et al., 1825. Eleven volumes. Small octavo, twentieth-century full black morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut. $5200.

1825 "Wreath" edition, published by William Pickering with a finely engraved wreath on each title page, beautifully bound by Louise Reymann. From the famed rare book collection of Robert Hoe, with his bookplates.

"Shakespeare is the Canon. He sets the standard and the limits of literature" (Harold Bloom). With Samuel Johnson's preface and glossary, and with frontispiece plate after Droeshout's portrait of Shakespeare. Jaggard, 516. Morocco-gilt bookplates of renowned bibliophile Robert Hoe, a co-founder and the first president of the prestigious Grolier Club. Mr. Hoe was "one of the best-known and most ardent of book collectors, and owner, during his lifetime, of one the most famous private library in this country… in his passing [in 1909] America lost one of her greatest bibliophiles" (Transactions of the Grolier Club IV:12). This set was sold at the 1912 auction of Hoe's books as lot 3044, where it was described as "a very fine set." Bookplates of noted book collector Willis Vickery.

Fine condition.