Die Tragische Geschichte Von Hamlet Prinzen Von Daenemark; In Deutscher Sprache

Weimar: Cranach Presse, 1929. Hardcover. Orig. vellum backed boards, spine and front cover lettered in red. Near fine in original worn plain paper jacket. Craig, Edward Gordeon. 203 pages. Folio, 35.2 x 24. Limited edition, copy 74 of 230. Woodcut illustrations by and after Edward Gordon Craig, half title and title printed in red and black from type by Eric Gill, typeface designed by Edward Johnson. Ancillary texts in English, French, German and Latin printed in the margins. A monument 17 years in the making, Count Harry Kessler's Cranach Hamlet began with a proposed stage production of Gordon-Craig, from which Kessler agreed to do a lavish book in 1912. Working through World War and through the 1920's, Gordon-Craig designed the woodcuts, cutting them himself, and master craftsman Edward Johnson designed the typeface "after that used by Fust and Schoeffer in their Mainz Psalter of 1457, it was cut by Edward Prince and completed after his death by G.T. Friend." [see: FRANKLIN THE PRIVATE PRESS] who also notes, p.164: "The bravest adventure among all private press books.....This book is a flawless monument." Further, "Anybody who examines the Cranach Press Hamlet must agree it is worthy of its reputation. The paper, superficially like Bachelor's Kelmscott. seems softer and more friendly, appropriate for the expressionist style of Craig's woodcuts. It is an expressionist book......Sometimes the woodcuts appear like suggestions for sets and costume. Sometimes they enter the page in a kind of stage setting of type, as the sources for Shakespeare make their way round the edges to the type area as a frame for the text. Red headlines and captions relieve the severity of vision. The wood grain, the shadows from the varied depths of engraving, bring valuable informality to a formidable scheme." GORDON N. RAY p.177. "His grandest achievement, of course was the Cranach Press "Hamlet, of 1929, which lies beyond our geographical and chronological limits." Hint of darkening to spine at lower portion.