[SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM]. The Plays. London: William Pickering, MDCCCXXV. [1825].
Pickering's miniature edition complete in 9 volumes. Leather-bound. Hardcovers. Miniature, 48mo (85 x 45 mm). Vol 1: [vi] 306 pp.; vol 2: 279 pp.; vol 3: 294 pp.; vol 4: 326 pp.; vol. 5: 321 pp.; vol. 6: 348 pp.; vol. 7: 320 pp.; vol. 8: 315 pp.; vol. 9: 279 pp. [liv]. Full brown straight-grain morocco bindings, spines with three raised bands, covers elaborately gilt decorated, all edges gilt, blue endpapers, 38 b&w plates, including a portrait frontispiece of Shakespeare engraved by Augustus Fox, from a picture painted by T. Stothard R.A. from the rare print by Droeshout. Frontispiece to each vol. (taken from the first drama in each), printed titles with large vignette to each vol., list of contents, title within frame and dramatis personae, head- and tail-piece for each work, Shakespeare's drama illustrated with 38 engraved plates all by various engravers after Stothard, one for each play, 'Glossary' to final vol. The contents are as follows: Vol. I - 'The Tempest'; 'Two Gentlemen of Verona'; 'Midsummer-Night's Dream'; 'Merry Wives of Windsor'; 'Twelfth Night'. Vol. II - 'Much Ado About Nothing'; 'Measure for Measure'; 'Love's Labour's Lost'; 'Merchant of Venice'. Vol. III - 'As You Like It'; 'All's Well That Ends Well'; 'Taming of the Shrew'; 'WInter's Tale'. Vol. IV - 'Comedy of Errors'; 'Macbeth'; 'King John'; 'King Richard II'; 'King Henry IV - Part I'. Vol. V - 'King Henry IV - Part II'; 'King Henry V'; 'King Henry VI - Part I'; King Henry VI - Part II'.Vol. VI - 'King Henry VI - Part III'; 'King Richard III'; 'King Henry VIII'; 'Troilus and Cressida'. Vol. VII - 'Timon of Athens'; 'Coriolanus'; 'Julius Caesar'; 'Antony and Cleopatra'. Vol. VIII - 'Cymbeline'; 'Titus Andronicus'; 'Pericles, Prince of Tyre'; 'King Lear'. Vol. IX - 'Romeo and Juliet'; 'Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'; 'Othello, Moor of Venice'; 'Glossary' [Lowndes IV: 2266]. Condition: FINE. An absolutely immaculate set. Without previous ownership markings. Scarce thus.
Notes: A fine and exquisite set, beautifully bound of a beautifully printed miniature edition of the dramatic works of Shakespeare. 'The smallest Edition ever printed.' (Lowndes). William Pickering was an English publisher notable for introducing cloth binding to British publishing.
