Shakespeare, William

Folio (12 3/4 x 8 1/2 in.; 324 x 215 mm). Engraved portrait by Martin Droeshout in Hind's second state, collation: A4 b6; A-Z, Aa6 BB8; Cc-Zz Aaa6; Bbb-Zzz Aaaa-Daaa6 Eeee4; a6 b4 *-****4, ¶A-¶B6 ¶C-¶F4 ¶G6= 514 leaves: Roman and italic text types, italics for headings, various larger roman and italic hands in the preliminaries. Double column, 66 lines, headlines and catchwords, pages box-ruled, woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials; portrait and Ben Jonson verses inlaid, long tear in title skillfully mended affecting a few letters in imprint and list of additional plays with fore-margin extended, Dedication leaf [A3] signed "A2", lower margins of preliminary leaves A4, b1-6 extended, a few small stains on leaves Dd5 and Ee3. 19th-century red morocco, triple fillet border, spine richly gilt with gold-stamped title, edges gilt, dentelles, by Francis Bedford; rebacked with original spine laid down, a few small scuffs.

John Pierpont Morgan (gilt stamped red leather armorial bookplate, pencilled shelfmark "W 11 A copy 3")

Pforzheimer 909; Greg III: 1118-1119; Wing S2914; Theodore Irwin, Catalogue of the Library belonging to ... Theodore Irwin (NY: 1887), no. 2519 (possibly this copy, the library bought en bloc by Morgan in April 1900).

portrait and Ben Jonson verses inlaid, long tear in title skilfully mended affecting a few letters in imprint and list of additional plays with fore-margin extended, Dedication leaf [A3] signed "A2" (characteristic of the first edition), lower margins of preliminary leaves A4, b1-6 extended, a few small stains on leaves Dd5 and Ee3. Late 19th-century red morocco, triple fillet border, spine richly gilt with gold-stamped title, edges gilt, dentelles, by F. Bedford; rebacked with original spine laid down, a few small scuffs.
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Third folio edition, second enlarged issue, of Shakespeare's plays, generally regarded as the rarest of the seventeenth-century folio editions. An unknown number of copies is thought to have been destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666.

John Pierpont Morgan's copy with bookplate and shelmark. 

The third folio is a reprint of the second edition (1632), but the second issue also contains seven additional plays of which only Pericles is authentic. The first issue appeared with the portrait on the title page and the Jonson verses on the verso of the first leaf. For this second issue, the first two leaves were cancelled and replaced by a conjugate pair, with the portrait above the Jonson verses, facing the title page which lists the seven added plays which were added on eleven supplementary quires.