Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$19.21 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: 103 + 83, 152 + 164pp. Front board detached but present, rest still well bound but missing title page & frontis engravings for Timon - starts with 'Observations'. Black 'Bell's Shakspere' labels on spine. Armorial bookplate of John Spicer.
Seller: Tony Hutchinson, Seale, United Kingdom
Bell, John. Prolegomena to the Dramatick Writings of Will. Shakspere. John Bell, 1788.
Price: US$30.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Brown leather covers and spine with gold trim. Marbleized endpapers. Engravings. Front cover has been repaired; corners of front cover worn, but text in excellent condition for age of volume. Extra postage outside of the US.
Seller: Friends of SMPL Bookstore, Santa Monica, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$882.52 + shipping
Description: Printed Complete From the Best Editions of Sam. Johnson and Geo. Steevens. 12mo (15cm). Complete in 20 volumes, with essays by Samuel Johnson, George Steevens, many of the plays with separate, lengthy, very detailed annotations, setting out bibliographical issues, printing history and the like. An important scholarly reference for the time, gathering together numerous essays and commentaries on the plays. Under Bell's direction, these sets would have been issued at a competitive price. Prolegomena, Vol I: frontis. portrait engraving of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, with the facing engraved dedication page by John Bell to His Royal Highness George Prince of Wales. A collection of Prefaces, including Pope, Johnson, Warburton and Heminge and Condell's preface to the folio edition of 1623. Prolegomena, Vol II: engraved frontis portrait of E. Malone (Edward), engraved portrait of David Garrick, Nicholas Rowe with Rowe's Life of Shakespeare, three engravings of Shakespeare, and his will, including the folding facsimile. Vol XII with the fold out plate of Morris Dancers. Engraved plates to each volume, mostly depicting leading actors in character. Half calf with marbled paper over boards, marbled leading and lower page edges. Gilt rules to red corner leather, author and title labels to spine compartments, gilt rules to spine edges. Armorial bookplate of Arthur Young (1741-1820), agricultural reformer and writer, to front pastedown. As can be seen from the picture, features a wolf's head atop a coronet, a slimmed down version of Young's usual bookplate which also features his heraldic shield, doubtless this bookplate made for his smaller size volumes. Occasional minor foxing to some endpapers and plates, one plate (Measure for Measure) detached, marbled paper to boards some what rubbed and worn to edges of some volumes. Fragment missing to lower corner of pp. 37, vol IV, Merry Wives of Windsor with minor loss only to text. Some volumes lack their author, title labels or both. Spine ends, tips, somewhat rubbed to varying degrees. All bindings firm and intact, pages clean and bright. Overall, a sound set of this important edition, with no significant flaws.
Seller: tinyBook, Bath, United Kingdom
SHAKESPEARE, William. The Dramatick Writings of William Shakespeare. John Bell, London, 1788.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Description: 20 volumes. Profusely illustrated with copper-plate engravings. 16mo, beautiful contemporary tree calf binding with elaborate gilt-decorated spines; red and black labels, outer dentelles (leather is a bit rubbed overall; outer hinges on some vols. are cracked but sound; 2 vols. have darkened areas on spines). London: John Bell, 1788. Bell's Shakespeare.
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.