Shakespeare's England by Winter, William - 1894

NY: Macmillan and Company, 1894. Fitch, E.. 12mo. 274pp. A unique copy with beautifully executed original pen and ink drawings throughout showing the sights and landmarks of Shakespeare's country. Profusely illustrated with hand-drawn vignettes of the thatched cottages of Stratford-upon-Avon, landscape vistas of Warwick and Windsor, and other known British locations. The illustrations are imaginative and romantic: at one point, a flock of birds alights from the rooftop of the Red Horse Inn and wings its way across the open pages to Stratford Church. The text, which is meant to be a guide for the American literary traveler, opens with quotations from Shakespeare and Wordsworth. The illustrator has encircled these verses with a set of scenic, cascading postcards, threaded together with a ribbon. Very little is known about the illustrator, E. Fitch: one illustration is signed "E. Fitch Catskill," but no record could be found of an illustrator by that name in the area. Ornately bound in red morocco by the American bindery Bradstreet's. Both covers are decorated with borders of oak leaves and acorns, employing onlays of green morocco and gilt vines. The spine is divided into six compartments, gilt-titled in one, and with gilt roses in the remaining five. Green morocco doublures are decorated with gilt dentelles and a border of leafy vines accented with minute butterflies. Silver moiré silk endpapers bordered with gilt decoration and a rose in each corner complete this sumptuous binding. Extremely fine and housed in a red morocco pull-off case. T.e.g. With a laid-in card bearing a gift note from the Philadelphia rare book dealer A. S. W. Rosenbach; it is speculated that Rosenbach, or another bookseller, might have had this copy specially embellished for an important private client.