The Works of William Shakespeare.

A very scarce complete set of an early Tonson edition of the works of William Shakespeare. Published in London by the influential bookseller Jacob Tonson in 1735, this complete eight-volume set of William Shakespeare’s plays represents a significant event in the eighteenth-century transmission of Shakespeare’s works. Issued during an extremely competitive period in the London book trade, Tonson produced the plays individually before issuing volume title pages so they could be bound into an eight-volume collected set, a practice that makes totally complete sets particularly scarce. Each play carries its own pagination, with a title page and frontispiece (unless otherwise stated), the title pages for the plays are dated from 1734 to 1735. Also present is an additional title page to each volume, with the incorrect date of 1635 printed, instead of 1735, as called for. Description and collation of each volume is below: 1. Volume the First: The Tempest, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Merry Wives of Windsor, Measure for Measure, Comedy of Errors and Much Ado About Nothing. Binding worn and scuffed calf with upper cover sprung, Morocco label to spine. Complete except for frontispiece engraving for Two Gentlemen…, some foxing and age-toning to pages, occasional pencil line markings, very amateur, likely contemporary metal pin/nail securing loose pages 35-52 in Comedy of Errors, and later edition of Much Ado About Nothing bound in (1750). 2. Volume the Second: Love’s Labor’s Lost, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As you Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, All’s Well that Ends Well. Complete except for engraving for Merchant of Venice. Worn and scuffed calf with faded gilt tooling to spine and covers, marbled endleaves. Largely clean with minor age toning. 3. Volume the Third: Twelfth Night, Winter’s Tale, King John, King Richard II, Henry IV Part 1. Complete. Paneled calf, scuffed, rebacked and firm. Two quires in Twelfth Night sprung but present. Else very clean. 4. Volume the Fourth: Henry IV Part 2, King Henry V, King Henry VI Part 1, King Henry VI Part 2 and King Henry VI Part 3. Complete. Paneled calf, scuffed with spine lacking exposing raised bands. Largely clean with occasional pencil line annotations. 5. Volume the Fifth: King Richard III, King Henry VIII, Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus and Titus Andronicus. Complete. Paneled calf scuffed and worn, rebacked and holding firm. Printing error on two early leaves affecting a few lines. Title page not present for Titus Andronicus, as called for, with printing information at end of play (colophon). Very few pencil annotations and largely clean. 6. Volume the Sixth: Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Julius Caesar, Macbeth and Hamlet. Complete except for engraving for Romeo and Juliet. Worn calf with faded gilt tooling to covers and spine. Minor foxing throughout and tiny worm holes becoming track for a few leaves in outer fore edge of Hamlet, not touching letters. 7. Volume the Seventh: King Lear, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra and Cymbeline. Complete. Worn calf with faded gilt tooling. Pencil line markings, a few spots and early staining, some age toning and cup ring/stain to B5 recto and verso of Antony and Cleopatra. 2 quires becoming loose but holding. 8. Volume the Eighth: Pericles, London Prodigal, Thomas Lord Cromwell, Life of Shakespeare (unpaginated). Sir John Oldcastle, The Puritan, A Yorkshire Tragedy, and Locrine. Complete. Worn calf with faded gilt tooling. Upper cover sprung. Mispagination in London Prodigal jumping from 24-97, as called for. Pencil line markings, age toning, some spotting, and stain at fore edge to last 20 leaves not touching text. A near complete group of Tonson Shakespeare play editions of the 1730s (one play from 1750), assembled in eight volumes; bindings varied, reflecting Tonson’s publication approach and the historical practice of individual purchase and later binding.…