The Works of Shakespeare. The text of the First Folio with Quarto variants and a selection of modern readings by SHAKESPEARE, William - 1929

London: Nonesuch Press, 1929. Some staining and discolouration of the leather, a good sound set.. Seven volumes, octavo, top-edges gilded 'on the rough' and others uncut; publisher's full tan niger morocco by A. W. Bain, with raised bands and gilt spine lettering. A splendid set: a benchmark for modern editions of Shakespeare and the 'chef d'oeuvre' for the famous Nonesuch Press. Edited by Herbert Farjeon, this set offers a fine combination of scholarly collation of the quarto variants against the first folio, with a beautiful physical design of both typography and binding. The overall design was by Francis Meynell; the text was printed at the Cambridge University Press, in Monotype Fournier with freshly-cut initials specifically made for this edition, and the bindings were prepared by A.W. Bain in London. The set was limited to 1600 copies."You have created a most marvellous pleasure", T. E. Lawrence wrote to his friend David Garnett. "I have handled it ever so many times, and read The Tempest right through. It satisfies. It is final, like the Kelmscott Chaucer or the Ashendene Virgil."This would appear to be an early set: rather than being numbered, it is embossed with the Nonesuch stamp 'This Book is Out of Series - For Review'.