The Works of William Shakespeare

Title: The Works of William Shakespeare

Author: Shakespeare, William

Publication: Stratford-on-Avon: The Shakespeare Head Press, 1904.

Description: Ten-volume set of Shakespeare's complete works, edited by A.H. Bullen and published at his Shakespeare Head Press in Stratford-on-Avon. Also known as the Stratford Town Edition. No. 44 of 1000 copies on handmade paper. All volumes with a half-title and photogravure frontispiece portrait. Title pages in red and black. Bound in publisher's full red cloth, with gilt lettering and decoration to the spine and front cover. 10.75 x 7.5 inches; 10 volumes. Moderate sunning to the spines, mild edgewear, offsetting to endpapers, and moderate foxing to the frontispieces. Overall, a Very Good copy. A.H. Bullen established the Shakespeare Head Press in 1904 in Stratford-on-Avon, for the specific purpose of printing Shakespeare's complete works in the playwright's birthplace. Bullen later stated that the idea came to him in a dream. Bullen was inspired by Wiilliam Morris' Kelmscott Press, and some of the equipment at the Shakespeare Head Press, including a printing press, compositors' frames, and typecases, came from Kelmscott.