The first folio is one of the earliest collected editions of Shakespeare’s works, reports The Guardian. By 1616, when Shakespeare passed away, just 17 of his plays were printed. It was this first folio, a collection of 36 plays including 18 of Shakespeare’s works, which preserved the bard’s works for centuries to come. According to The Guardian, it includes Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ and ‘The Tempest’ which wouldn’t have survived for the world to see otherwise. Shakespeare’s works were edited and compiled by his friends and fellow actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell, who printed roughly 750 such first folio out of which over 200 have survived the test of time.
The rare first folio will be up for auction on October 19 by Holabird Western Americana Collections. “Offered here is a William Shakespeare (1564-1616) First Folio authenticated single play “fragment” of “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, with the Life and Death of HENRY Sirnamed HOT-SPVRRE”. This fragment represents one complete play (in a 2-part production of Henry IV) that was published in 1623 in the First Folio of “Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. Published according to the True, Original Copies.”,” reads the description of the rare folio on their official website.
Sharing a glimpse of the rare folio, here’s what Holabird Western Americana Collections posted on social media recently:
The authenticity of the first folio has been checked by Eric Rasmussen, a Shakespeare scholar. It is estimated to be around $50,000-$100,000. ‘The auction house might have put a price on the fragment, but it added that the pages “of the first copy ever printed by the most important figure in literary history” were “of inestimable value”,’ reports The Guardian.
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