book as “a triumph” and noting “it is one of the great books . . . to my mind easily the most important book since Morris’s Chaucer”. This copy is from the library of Paul Hirsch (1881– 1951) and his wife Olga Hirsch (1889–1968). Loosely inserted is an autograph letter signed from Craig to Hirsch, dated 6 July 1939 and addressed from Saint- Germain-en-Laye. Paul Hirsch inherited the Frankfurt iron manufacturing business of his father in 1916 and was an avid collector of printed and manuscript music which eventually comprised around 18,000 volumes. Hirsch fled Germany with his library in 1936 and the music portion was sold to the British Library in 1946. This volume was later part of the private press and bindings collection of A. J. Karter. Also laid is a quantity of related letters and news clippings. Folio. Full red crushed morocco by Otto Dorfner (signed on rear turn-in), spine lettered in gilt, five raised bands, single border to covers ruled in gilt, cover edges and turn-ins ruled in gilt, top edge gilt. Housed in a contemporary red cloth folding box. Text printed in red and black. Half-title cut by Eric Gill, 74 wood-engraved illustrations designed and cut by Edward Gordon Craig. Some offsetting from turn-ins to free endpapers, as usual; a fine and notably clean copy. Box somewhat worn with foxing to interior cloth. ¶ Fletcher & Rood C25(c); Bablet, The Theatre of Edward Gordon Craig , 1981; Newman, ed., The Correspondence of Edward Gordon Craig and Count Harry Kessler , 1995. £25,000 [154055]
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poet Gerhart Hauptmann to produce a new and “definitive” translation of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy. Originally intended for publication in 1928, the work was not finished until 1929, largely due to Hauptmann’s desire for perfection. Craig’s illustrations are his greatest achievement in book illustration. Their genesis can be found in his 1908 designs, which he called his “black figures”. These were developed into designs for the Moscow Art Theatre production. First performed on 5 January 1912, this collaboration with Konstantin Stanislavski was “one of the most famous and passionately discussed productions in the history of the modern stage” (Bablet). Part of the technical brilliance of this book is seen in the extraordinary printing of the same plate in different tones. This was achieved through the laborious layering of precisely cut tissue and use of different pressures during the printing process. The Cranach Presse Hamlet was instantly recognised as a supreme achievement. In January 1930 the painter William Rothenstein wrote to Kessler hailing the
PRESS: SHAKESPEARE, William. Die Tragische Geschichte von Hamlet Prinzen von Daenemark. Weimar: Cranach Presse, 1928 [1929] ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND IMPORTANT PRESS BOOKS OF THE CENTURY, TOGETHER WITH A LETTER BY EDWARD GORDON CRAIG First Cranach edition, number 85 of 230 copies on paper from the total edition of 255. The total edition comprised 8 lettered copies on vellum, 17 numbered copies on Japanese paper, and 230 copies on handmade paper. An English edition was published in 1930 in a larger limitation consisting of 322 copies. The Cranach Press was founded by Count Harry Graf Kessler (1868–1937) with the undertaking to print the finest possible editions of the world’s greatest literature in new and important German translations. Kessler employed print-men and illustrators of outstanding ability and commissioned the renowned
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SPRING 2022
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