Cranach Press.- Shakespeare (William) The Tragedie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke, edited by J.Dover Wilson, number 120 of 300 copies on Maillol handmade paper, type designed by Edward Johnston after the Mainz Psalter of 1457, title cut by Eric Gill, printed in red, blue and black, wood-engraved illustrations designed and cut by Edward Gordon Craig, 'Notes on the Text...' by the editor in original cloth-backed wrappers loose in pocket at end, very light spotting to a few leaves (as often), foxing to rear endpapers, original red crushed morocco, gilt, by Otto Dorfner of Weimar, upper cover with title and small circular cut after Craig in gilt with single gilt fillet border, spine titled in gilt within five raised bands with double rules in gilt, t.e.g., others uncut, signed on rear turn-in, lower corner of rear cover slightly bumped, [The Artist and the Book 1860-1960 66], folio, Weimar, Cranach Press, 1930.

⁂ A magnificent copy of Edward Gordon Craig's masterpiece and one of only a few copies in the deluxe binding. A German edition was issued the previous year but this English edition contains 6 additional woodcuts by Craig. Having seen the prints ("black figures") made from Craig's wooden figures which he used with his model theatre, Count Harry Kessler commissioned Craig to illustrate an edition of Hamlet. It was to be printed at his private Cranach press using the woodblocks and with specially-designed type. This was in 1912 but work on it was suspended during the First World War and Craig became distracted by other projects so the book was not issued for nearly twenty years. Craig's son, Teddy, went to Weimar to assist the master-printer, Gage Cole, in the printing of the woodblocks: "I was the only person who knew how to get the kind of impression required, showing the delicate side grain of wood and at the same time producing the specially blackened details in certain blocks." Edward Craig. Gordon Craig: The Story of His Life p.326

"This is one of the most ambitious and successful books of the Cranach Press, with a fine harmony between the type page and the illustration". (The Artist and the Book, p.52).