The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare, Signed Custom Harcourt Binding

Binding Details:  Signed custom binding by the Harcourt Bindery, Charlestown, Massachusetts bound in three-quarter morocco leather over complimentary cloth covered boards with raised bands to the spine and gilt titles and ruling with single gilt lines to the boards and corners. There are hand-sewn silk endbands, marbled endpapers, with the top page edges gold gilted. The Harcourt Bindery label appears on the bottom of the last free endpaper.

Book Details: Published by J.M Dent & Sons and E.P. Dutton and Company circa 1930, the book was printed by the Temple Press at Letchworth in Great Britain and features 8 colored pictures painted in Tempera by Maxwell Armfield. Robert Greene commenting on the play wrote, “The Winter's Tale is Shakespeare's most perfectly realized tragi-comedy, as notable for its tragic intensity as for its comic grace and, throughout, for the richness and complexity of its poetry. It concludes, moreover, with the most daring and moving reconciliation scene in all Shakespeare's plays." Though the title may suggest an escapist fantasy, recent criticism has seen in the play a profoundly realist psychology and a powerful commentary on the violence implicit in family relationships and deep, long-lasting friendships.”

Measures approximately 11” x 8” with 98 pages as well as a foreword, list of illustrations, and list of characters in the play.

Condition Report:  The binding is in FINE condition. Internally, the book is very clean with no signs of previous ownership. Overall, this is a beautiful binding that houses one of Shakespeare’s classic plays.

A photograph of the binding appears in the photo section of the listing.