Galerie des personnages de Shakespeare

First edition illustrated with 80 plates hors texte. Each play is accompanied by one steel engraving and one wood engraving. The names appearing on the plates include Geoffroy, Verdeil, Rouargue, and Harvey, though most of the steel engravings — remarkably fine and often marked by a highly imaginative, at times visionary style — are unsigned.
Publisher’s original blue morocco-grain cloth binding, richly gilt, the spine lavishly decorated with a geometric interlace and foliate motifs; the boards with a large romantic blind-stamped frame and two distinct central designs, one depicting Falstaff, the other a composition with a lyre, a medallion, and related emblems. Slight damage at the upper joint. On the lower board, a strip of cloth appears to have been reinforced or filled.

Attractive copy.

This edition stands as a jewel of Romantic illustration. The quality of the steel engravings is often astonishing. Following a preface by Old Nick and two frontispieces — one devoted to Shakespeare, the other to his characters — each play is introduced and commented upon by Amédée Pichot, with the engravings illustrating a specific passage from the text. The excerpt referenced by each plate is printed in both English and French.