Yngve Berg (1887-1963)
“Imogen: …This was my Master,...” Proof lithograph for the Limited Editions Club Cymbeline, [ca. 1939].
Yngve Berg (1887-1963)
“Imogen: …Looke I draw the Sword my selfe, take it, and hit...” Proof lithograph for the Limited Editions Club Cymbeline, [ca. 1939].
William Shakespeare
The Comedies Histories & Tragedies of William Shakespeare. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1939-1940.
Each volume of the Limited Editions Club Shakespeare was illustrated by a different leading artist, with several different countries represented. The illustrations vary greatly in style, such that, together, the thirty-seven volumes present an expansive snapshot of the art and illustration practices of the day. The edition of Pericles, shown here, was illustrated with wood-engravings by Stanisław Ostoja-Chrostowski (1900-1947), a Polish artist from Warsaw. At the time of publication - the combined German and Russian invasions of Poland were underway - the publishers had had no contact with Chrostowski, and in their prospectus for the volume they wrote that they did know if he was still alive. (He was, and he also lived to see the end of the Second World War.)
The Limited Editions Club issued the plays of Shakespeare as a thirty-seven volume set, with each play appearing as its own individual volume. The typography was designed by Bruce Rogers (1870-1957), one of the leading typographers and book designers of his day. The editor, Herbert Farjeon (1887-1945), produced a text that blended the First Folio text with occasional corrections based on the quartos. Farjeon claimed that his edition was as close as one could get to the true text of Shakespeare’s plays as he had written them, but it is, inevitably, a twentieth-century attempt to restore a sixteenth- and seventeenth-century text that is now lost to us.
William Shakespeare
The Comedies Histories & Tragedies of William Shakespeare. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1939-1940.
The Limited Editions Club version of Julius Caesar was illustrated with wood-engravings by the Flemish artist, Frans Masereel (1889-1972).
William Shakespeare
The Comedies Histories & Tragedies of William Shakespeare. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1939-1940.
The Limited Editions Club version of Macbeth featured illustrations by Edward Gordon Craig, who had previously executed the woodcuts for the Cranach Press Hamlet. In a break from his usual work with wood engravings, his Macbeth illustrations were drawn on paper with lithographic crayons, which could then be printed in color with lithography. In addition to his work as an illustrator, Craig also had a successful theatrical background: he began working as an actor when he was seventeen and had performed in several Shakespearean roles, including Hamlet and Macbeth. After eight years of acting, he also took on the role of stage manager.
Jean Charlot (1898-1979)
“Queen: Hold you his hands, whilest I doe set it on.” Proof illustration for the Limited Editions Club Henry VI, Part III, [ca. 1940].
Jean Charlot (1898-1979)
“Prince: I know my dutie, you are all undutifull.” Proof illustration for the Limited Editions Club Henry VI, Part III, [ca. 1940].
Valenti Angelo (1897-1982)
“Constance.” Proof illustration for the Limited Editions Club King John, [ca. 1940].
