Limited Edition Celebrating 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio
Smith Settle hand binding the Folio Society's Limited Edition, Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio
Limited to 1,000 sets, each hand-numbered and signed by artist and illustrator, Neil Packer, with new introductions by Dame Judi Dench and Gregory Doran, The Complete Plays will be priced at £1,000 each and available exclusively from The Folio Society from 26 September 2023. The Complete Plays will mark the 400th anniversary of the registration of Shakespeare’s First Folio, which was published in November 1623 and is considered one of the most influential books in history.
Limited to 1,000 sets, each hand-numbered and signed by artist and illustrator, Neil Packer, with new introductions by Dame Judi Dench and Gregory Doran, The Complete Plays will be priced at £1,000 each and available exclusively from The Folio Society from 26 September 2023. The Complete Plays will mark the 400th anniversary of the registration of Shakespeare’s First Folio, which was published in November 1623 and is considered one of the most influential books in history.
Transcript
00:00 [ Music ]
00:14 >> My name is Kate Grimwaite, and I'm production director
00:16 at the Folio Society.
00:17 We're at Smiths Settle today to watch them begin the binding
00:22 process of these wonderful volumes of Shakespeare's plays,
00:27 which Folio are publishing to celebrate the 400th anniversary
00:31 of Shakespeare's first folio.
00:34 Smiths Settle have folded and sewn the sheets
00:41 into these beautiful pages, gilded the edges,
00:47 and tipped on the endpapers.
00:50 And today we're here to watch them bind these books
00:55 in this incredibly beautiful silk
00:57 with a pattern designed by Neil Packer.
01:00 The silk's been woven at a company called Stephen Walter's
01:05 being woven on a jacquard loom.
01:07 And Smiths Settle have cut the woven silk,
01:10 which we have in front of us here.
01:12 So these are rolls of silk, one designed for each volume.
01:16 This one is a tragedies, which has a symbol
01:19 of the heart and the dagger.
01:20 This is the comedies that has a symbol of the jester's hat,
01:25 and this one is the histories.
01:26 So Smiths Settle are carefully cutting out each panel of silk,
01:31 and they're going to line that in paper.
01:33 And then they're going to make a book block like this.
01:36 And then this will be bound into the book block
01:43 to create one of the volumes.
01:45 Most of this work is done by hand.
01:48 In fact, all of this work is done by hand
01:50 with great care and attention.
01:53 And we're really proud of what we're doing with Smiths Settle here
01:57 and of the enormous care they're taking
02:00 to bind these beautiful books.
02:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]