The Works.

London: Printed at the Ballantyne Press [for the Vale Press],, 1900-03. The swan song of a fine private press Rare complete set of the Vale Press Shakespeare, each volume one of 310 copies tastefully designed in the art nouveau style by Charles Ricketts. The press's final project was published in monthly intervals over three years. Following its completion, the press produced its Bibliography (1904) and then ceased operations. Charles Ricketts (1866-1931) founded the Vale Press in 1894, having previously worked for commercial publishers and decorating editions such as Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) and Oscar Wilde's The Sphinx (1894). Influenced by both the aesthetic movement and William Morris, his Vale Press books are more classical than medieval in style, and "the distinct personal element in these books derives from the woodcut designs and illustrations drawn and cut by Ricketts" (Ransom, p. 39). According to Ricketts, "a Kelmscott book, and, if I may say so, a Vale book, is a living and corporate whole, the quality of beauty therein is all-pervading... it is conceived harmoniously and made beautifully like any other genuine work of art" (pp. vi-vii). Together, 39 works, octavo. Elaborate woodcut frames introducing each play, decorative woodcut borders and fleurons in the text, by Charles Ricketts. Printed on handmade paper. Type in Avon fount, specially cast for these editions. Original green cloth, spines lettered and studded at head with circles in gilt, covers panelled in blind around central wheatsheaf design, edges untrimmed, some vols unopened. Bookseller's tickets in a few volumes. Uneven fading to spines, covers bright, bubbling to a couple of bindings, usual browning to endpapers, occasional light foxing, but generally clean. A very nice set. Ransom 44; Ricketts, pp. 31-4.