Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare, The. (In 2 cloth slipcases.)
An Extraordinary Relic: Emma Lazarus’s 21st Birthday
Present To Her Brother
[Lazarus, Emma]. The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare. With a Bibliographical Introduction by Henry Glassford Bell. New York: D. Appleton, 1872.
6 vols.; 8vo.; a.e.g.; full contemporary burgundy morocco, elaborately stamped in blind and gilt; slight wear to covers; extremities lightly rubbed and shaken; else a fine set. Housed in two specially made cloth slipcases.
A sturdy mid-19th-century collected American edition. A monumentally sentimental set, inscribed in all six volumes by Emma Lazarus to her brother, Frank: Frank Lazarus/ from his sister/ Emma/ May 12th, 1872. Evidently on the occasion of her only brother’s 21st birthday, Lazarus presented to him this “masculine” set of Shakespeare‘s Dramatic Works.
The rarity of Lazarus’s signature cannot be overstated. Her premature death at 33 guaranteed a paucity of examples, and for generations collections of American autographs have perceived Lazarus’s signature a genuine black tulip. An example such as this, with six intimate family inscriptions, is unheard of.
(#4726)
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