Shakespeare’s plays were first grouped in a single work in 1623. — Picture courtesy of Massimo Todaro / Shutterstock
LONDON, Oct 27 — Few antique books attract as much collector interest as rare copies of the First Folio, a collection of 36 Shakespeare plays. An excerpt from one of them will soon be offered at auction at Holabird Western Americana Collections. It contains the complete play, Henry IV, Part 1.
This rare manuscript has been authenticated as an original fragment of Shakespeare’s First Folio by the scholar and University of Nevada literature professor, Eric Rasmussen. The first compilation of the Elizabethan playwright’s dramatic works dates from 1623, seven years after his death. The plays were collected and edited by John Heminges and Henry Condell, two actors and friends of the writer. Historians agree that, without them, 18 of Shakespeare’s plays — including Macbeth and Twelfth Night — might never have entered into posterity. At the time, only 750 copies of the First Folio were printed. Only 235 complete copies are known to exist, of which only five are in private hands.
The book, on sale October 29 at Holabird Western Americana Collections, is not a complete copy of the First Folio, but an excerpt containing the complete play Henry IV, Part 1. According to Eric Rasmussen, some of Shakespeare’s plays were sold separately to cover part of the printing costs of the First Folio copies. “One could speculate that perhaps the reason only 750 complete First Folios were published, rather than 1,000, is because a couple [of] hundred copies of individual plays were pre-sold as fragments with card stock covers, as a way to generate revenue and cover expenses during the lengthy production process,” explains the Holabird Western Americana Collections auction house.
“Inestimable value”
This first edition of Henry IV, Part 1 is estimated to fetch US$50,000 to US$100,000 (RM207,450 to Rm415,000). However, bids could go higher given the great rarity of first editions of Shakespeare’s plays. A copy of Julius Caesar dating from 1623 sold for US$175,000 at Bonhams in 2018. But that’s nothing compared to the US$9.98 million fetched by a copy of the First Folio at Christie’s two years later — a record sum for a printed literary work.
Holabird Western Americana Collections says that this copy of Henry IV, Part 1 is of “inestimable value.” “The possibility of owning a piece of the most important literary work extant is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said the auction house. — ETX Studio