Title: THE HANDY-VOLUME SHAKESPEARE 13 Volumes
Publisher: Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., London
Publication Date: 1873
Binding: Hardback
Book Condition: Fine
Edition: Handy Volume Ediiton.
No date. Circa 1873. 12mo. Complete set of 13 volumes. All edges gilt over red. 24.5 x 15.5 x 10.5 cm (oak chest measurements). Publisher's full navy blue soft morocco bindings, spines lettered & numbered in gilt. Presented in superb, original, solid oak chest with royal blue morocco label to interior of lid detailing contents of volumes, green felt underside, dovetailed corner joints, two brass hinges, a brass railplate and a turned boxwood knob on the front. All fittings original and untouched. The ideal way to have taken the complete 13 volumes of the Bard's works anywhere from the library desktop, as a traveller or on campaign. Bradbury, Agnew & Co., from 1872, at 10 Bouverie Street, was founded in 1872 when Frederick Moule Evans (1832-1902) left Bradbury, Evans and Co., the firm he had jointly managed with William Hardwick Bradbury (1832-1892) since 1865 when their fathers, who had founded the firm in 1830 as Bradbury and Evans, retired. The Agnew art dealer family, into which both W. H. Bradbury and his sister, Edith, had married, had brought new capital into Bradbury, Evans and Co. in 1865. This injection of capital saw William Agnew (1825-1910) and his brothers Thomas (b 1827) and John Henry became partners when Bradbury, Agnew and Co. was founded. The new firm continued to publish Household Words, Once a Week, and Punch but limited their overall publication of titles to just Shakespeare, the Bible, some archaeology and fox-hunting titles and a few others such as Sylviculture , George Du Maurier, & Theophile Gautier. More frequently found in a close fitting cloth or leather slipcase, this original boxed set is a rare survivor.