TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE.

Early edition with George Soper's illustrations. Publisher's original blue cloth with titles and decorations to the spine and upper board in dark blue, in the dustwrapper with an illustration plate laid to the front panel. Illustrated endpapers. With 16 colour plates and further black and white line drawings by George Soper. A very good copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth rubbed at the spine and board corners. There is toning and offsetting to the endpapers and some spotting to the closed text-block edge and occasionally to the margins, the contents are otherwise clean and without stamps or inscriptions. Complete with the toned, nicked and creased original dustwrapper that has a few marks to the front panel and some short closed tears to the edges, mainly around the spine and flap folds. Not price-clipped (Four Shillings and Sixpence on the front flap).

A beautiful edition of Lamb's 'Tales From Shakespeare', illustrated by the painter, etcher and illustrator George Soper (1870-1942). Soper made a name for himself early in his career with his adept work for illustrated gift books of such as 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'The Water Babies'. Later in life he dedicated his talents to making paintings and etchings of the rural way of life that was continuing to decline under industrialisation. Soper's youngest daughter, Eileen, took after her father and at 15 became the youngest person ever to exhibit at the Royal Academy. She went on to become famous for her prolific illustrative work for the writings of Enid Blyton.