Tragedie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke, The

A Landmark in the History of Twentieth-Century Book Design and Printing
"A Flawless Monument"
With an Illustration Proof signed by Edward Gordon Craig

[CRANACH PRESS]. SHAKESPEARE, William. CRAIG, Edward Gordon, [illustrator]. GILL, Eric, [title by]. 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. Weimar: printed by Count Harry Kessler at the Cranach Press, 1930.

One of 300 numbered copies on handmade hemp fibre and linen Maillol / Kessler paper (from a total edition of 322 copies), this being copy number sixty-two. Printed in 10, 12, and 18 point black letter, designed by Edward Johnston after that used by Fust and Schoeffer in their Mainz Psalter of 1457. Folio. (14 x 9.5 inches; 355 x 240 mm.). [vi, blank], [1-3] 4-186, [1, blank; 1, colophon, 2 blank] pp. With eighty wood-cuts and wood-engravings by Gordon Craig, of which seventy-eight are printed in black and two are printed in black and color. Wood-cut on title by Eric Gill.

In the publisher's original quarter vellum over beige paper boards, lettered in gilt on the spine [WILLIAM / SHAKESPEARE / THE / TRAGEDIE OF / HAMLET / ILLUSTRATED / BY / E.G. CRAIG / CRANACH / PRESS / MDCCCCXXX] and on the front board [HAMLET]. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. With the publisher's thirty-five page supplemental 'Notes' [separately sewn] laid into a rear pocket as issued. In the publisher's original paper board slipcase with holograph title [HAMLET] in ink on the spine. An exceptionally fine copy, bright and clean in the publisher's original binding and box (slipcase a bit faded and edge worn).

"Together with the Maillol Virgil, this is one of the most ambitious and successful books of the Cranach Press, with a fine harmony between the type page and the illustration. A German edition in 1929 preceded this English version. Craig worked over a period of seventeen years on the wood-cuts, developing them from designs originated for his production of Hamlet at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1912." �The Artist & the Book 1860-1960, page 52.

"Because of the international nature of its work, the employment of British and French as well as German artists, and the production of several of its books in French and english editions, The Cranach Presse has received more atention in the English-speaking world than any other German private press.�Eclogues, Hamlet, and Canticum Canticorum�these three books were superb. No greater compliment could have been paid Hamlet than [famed German master printer] C.E. Poeschl's statement to Kessler that he had a sleepless night over it, so excited had he been by the work�Kessler's undertaking was in the grand tradition in which neither time nor cost was important" (Franklin, The Private Presses, 2d ed., p. 147).

"Anybody who examines the Cranch Press Hamlet must agree that it is worthy of its reputation. The paper, superficially like Bachelor's Kelmscott, seems softer and more friendly, appropriate for the expressionist style of Craig's woodcuts. It is an expressionist book�Sometimes the woodcuts appear like suggestions for sets and costume. Sometimes they enter the page in a kind of stage setting of type, as the sources for Shakespeare make their way round the edges of the type area as a frame for the text. Red headlines and captions relieve the the severity of vision. The wood grain, the shadows from varied depths of engraving, bring valuable informality to a formidable scheme. These designs�form the bravest adventure among all private press books�this book is a flawless monument" (Franklin, Private Presses, 1ed., p. 164).

With a Cranach Press advertising leaf announcing this present volume laid in.

The Artist & the Book 1860-1960. 66.

[together with]

A Signed Illustration Proof from Hamlet by Edward Gordon Craig, number 10 of 30 printed on tissue. Unmounted. 9 3/4 x 6 13/16 inches (244 x 174 mm). Fine.

"Edward Gordon Craig was born in Stevenage/Hertford in 1872 as son of the actress Ellen Terry and the architect, stage designer and theatre director Edward William Godwin. Between 1889 and 1897 he worked as an actor at Henry Irving's �Lyceum Theatre in London and began to design his own figurines and stage designs. He was increasingly interested in graphics and was taught woodcut techniques by James Pryde, William Nicholson and William Rothenstein since 1893. Craig executed in the following time uncounted exlibris, portraits of actors, theatre brochures and book illustrations. In his journal 'The Page' he published several graphics using various pseudonyms. In 1899 Craig turned back to the theatre and founded the Purcell Operatic Society together with the composer Martin Fallas Shaw. Here his most important theatre works were executed. With the help of Harry Graf Kessler in Weimar he got acquainted with important contemporary artists and achieved an international breakthrough with his programmatic essay The Art of the Theatre. Craig became the reformer of the stage design which had been dominated by the aesthetic of depiction and illusionism. During his lifetime he was barely able to realise his radically new theatre concept and his abstract stage aesthetic, basing on light and shadow, but his journalistic influence still lasted in the 20th century. His artistic power was developed in numerous sketches, independent from a practical realisabilty. Craig's drawings and woodcuts are formed by the style of the turn of the century and refer in their decorative line drawing, the sectioning of areas in clear forms and the high-contrast setting of light and shadow to Art Nouveau. In 1926 the artist was honoured with the Order of Knights of Danneborg' for the performance of Ibsen's Kronprätendenten. Craig lived in Vence/Alpes Maritimes since 1948, where he attended to scientific studies, drawing, writing, collecting and designing of book covers" (http://www.edward-gordon-craig.com).

Price: $0

   (To order this item, or for more information, please call 818-222-4103)