The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare (Shakespeare)

Handsome, antique set of "The Dramatic Works of WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE." The volumes are dated 1850, 1854, 1856 and 1857; published by Phillips, Sampson, and Company in Boston. Complete set in eight volumes. Nicely bound in three-quarter leather with marbled covers, gilt decorations and five raised bands on the spine, marbled end papers, and marbled page edges on all sides. The volumes are beautifully illustrated with detailed full-page engravings (with tissue guards).

The contents are as follows:
VOLUME I: Life of Shakespeare; New Facts, &c.; Shakspeare's Will; Preface of the Players; Tempest; Two Gentlemen of Verona; Merry Wives of Windsor; Twelfth Night or, What You Will; Measure for Measure; Much Ado About Nothing
VOLUME II: Midsummer-Night's Dream; Love's Labor's Lost; Merchant of Venice; As You Like It; All's Well that Ends Well; Taming of the Shrew
VOLUME III: Winter's Tale; Comedy of Errors; Macbeth; King John; King Richard the Second; King Henry the Fourth
VOLUME IV: King Henry the Fourth (cont.); King Henry the Fifth; King Henry the Sixth
VOLUME V: King Richard the Third; King Henry the Eighth; Troilus and Cressida; Timon of Athens; Coriolanus
VOLUME VI: Julius Caesar; Antony and Cleopatra; Cymbeline; Titus Andronicus; Pericles, Prince of Tyre
VOLUME VII: King Lear; Romeo and Juliet; Hamlet, Prince of Denmark; Othello, The Moor of Venice
VOLUME VIII: Venus and Adonis; The Rape of Lucrece; Sonnets; Illustration of the Sonnets; A Lover's Complaint; The Passionate Pilgrim; Verses Among the Additional Poems to Chester's Love's Martyrs; Illustrations of a Lover's Complaint, The Passionate Pilgrim, &c.; Supplementary Notice to the Poems; Supplementary Notice to the Roman Plays

Condition:
The pages of this set are in excellent condition - for the most part the pages appear unread. All volumes are tightly bound with firmly attached covers. Shelf wear to the edges of the boards. Wear to the corners, and to the top and bottom edges of the spines. Rubbing/fading of the marbled paper over the covers. The volume number label is missing from the spine of volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8. Vol 1 - page 7 is present but has detached, and there is a thin, 1.5" strip of paper missing along the outer edge. Vol 2 - the right half of the tissue guard over the page 447 plate has torn away, and the tissue guard has nearly detached. Vol 6 - the tissue guard over the page 213 plate is plates, but has nearly detached and is attached only at the bottom edge. Vol 7 - light staining on the contents page. Vol 8 - small stains at the outer edge of pages 135 & 136. Overall the set is in Good+ condition.