Portraits of William Shakespeare Gallery

Shakespeare First Folio facsimile engraving by John Swaine

SR OS 37 X). Shakespeare First Folio, 1623. Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies. Published according to the true originall copies. Editors dedication signed: Iohn Heminge. Henry Condell. Printed at the charges of W. Iaggard, Ed. Blount, I. Smithweeke, and W. Aspley. 1623.
The Binding is 1/2 calf with marbled paper boards, probably bound for Robert Bell Wheler before c.1850. This First Folio was acquired by Robert Bell Wheler (1785-1857) c.1820; it was bequeathed to his sister Miss Anne Wheler, who donated it to the Shakespeare Museum in 1862.
This fragmentary copy is recorded in the Lee Census 143, Class IIIB; West No. 38; Introductory pages are missing. Lacks 65 leaves incl. preliminaries, Tempest, Othello, parts of Two Gentlemen of Verona, Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Cymbeline; 12 shorter leaves introduced from other copies(?); facsimile portrait engraved by John Swaine; several leaves misbound; minor tears repaired; some MS. ink marginal notes.
Frontispiece, facsimile portrait engraved by John Swaine

© The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust