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| Cover illustration for The Academy (1900) [KB, National Library, The Hague] |
The Vale Press artists think that “no edition of Shakespeare’s Plays at present exists that is notable as a finely-printed book on paper whose permanence is undoubted.” So the Vale Press is going to issue its own Shakespeare, printed in a new “Avon” fount of small pica type, and adorned with borders and half-borders by Mr. Rickett[s]. Each play will be issued in a demy 8vo volume, and separate schemes of internal decoration have been arranged for the Tragedies, Comedies and Histories. Good! The world will soon have its well-printed enduring edition of Shakespeare. Scholars, book-lovers, critics – rise, welcome it in your myriads! Stay – what is this? “Only 310 sets of the Vale Shakespeare will be printed, of which 100 sets are for sale in the United States of America and 187 sets in Great Britain . . . The whole of the English edition of the Vale Shakespeare has been taken up by collectors and the trade.” Vale!
Unfortunately these special editions are always exploited by speculators and those who have never before made a penny out of books succumb to the temptation. Only last week a gentleman having bought his right to a copy of the edition at 16s. a volume, transferred the right the next day, at a profit of 5s. a volume. The publication of the edition would have begun last year had it not been for the fire at Messrs. Ballantyne’s, which destroyed the type and the sheets of the first two volumes. (The Academy, 17 March 1900, p. 216)
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| The Acadamy (17 March 1900) |
The notice was briefly summarised in the Dutch magazine De Kroniek of 25 March 1900. Hacon & Ricketts had announced the Shakespeare edition with a four-page prospectus (including order form) that probably appeared in the last quarter of the previous year. However, a fire at the printing firm on 9 December 1899 necessitated a delay.
The wording of The Academy is often literally that of the prospectus - which does not refer to the fire. The magazine seems to be relying on this same prospectus, as if Hacon & Ricketts reused it as an announcement without modification. There were, however, two other notices referring to the fire either because it caused the publication programme to grind to a halt or to report which books were now still available. It is somewhat puzzling why no new announcement was made in February/March 1900. It would have been quite logical, although the books that had appeared in 1899 had all been fully subscribed.
And there is another puzzle. When the announcement was sent out in 1899, the press did not pay any attention to it. It was only after the fire that it was reported that the Vale Press was working on this multi-volume edition to be published between 1900 and 1903.
The only solution is that it was not sent to the press at the time, but to Vale Press subscribers, dealers and collectors, and apparently, their numbers were sufficient to sell out the entire edition. That would explain why the Shakespeare was fully subscribed in advance, as one of the two later notices explained:
Any subscribers who desire to cancel their orders on account of this postponement are requested to notify their intention at once, so that arrangements may be made for the transfer of their sets to those who were previously disappointed.
But, as The Academy, stated, in the meantime, there were subscribers who wanted to profit from it and instead of withdrawing their subscription, they sold it for high amounts to other collectors or dealers. One of those was John Lane, who from the latter half of 1900 was the sole agent for the Vale Press in America. He offered to buy back Vale Press books, only to sell them for higher prices.
