Unidad documental simple 2 - Note from R. W. Chapman to R. B. McKerrow

(Oxford?)—Cites an advertisement for an 18th-century edition of Shakespeare issued in a choice of seven bindings.

—————

Transcript

25/2/26

Stockdale in 1785 advertised a one-volume Shakespeare in royal octavo {1} at the following prices:—

[The items in the following list are braced together on the right-hand side:]
Boards 15s.
Calf 17s. 6d.
Calf gilt 18s.
Russia 19s.
Vellum 21s.
Morocco extra 25s.
Tortoiseshell 63s.

This is much more elaborate than anything I have noted. It shows that publishers’ binding had gone far!

RWC

R. B. McKerrow Esq.

—————

Marked ‘noted’ at the head by McKerrow.

{1} No. 346 in Murphy’s Shakespeare in Print (2003).