Rare editions of Shakespeare's plays could fetch US$6 million at auction
A set of the first four editions of William Shakespeare's collected works is expected to sell for up to £4.5 million (US$6 million) at auction next month.
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Sotheby's auction house announced the sale on Wednesday, Shakespeare's 461st birthday. It said the May 23 sale will be the first time since 1989 that a set of the First, Second, Third and Fourth Folios has been offered at auction as a single lot.
The auction house estimates the sale price at between £3.5 million and £4.5 million.
A portrait of Shakespeare believed to have been made during his lifetime. Photo: AP
After Shakespeare's death in 1616, his plays were collected into a single volume by his friends John Heminges and Henry Condell, actors and shareholders in the playwright's troupe, the King's Men.
The First Folio – fully titled Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies – contained 36 plays, of which half were published there for the first time. Without the book, scholars say, plays including Macbeth, The Tempest and Twelfth Night might have been lost. Sotheby's called the volume 'without question the most significant publication in the history of English literature.'
The First Folio of William Shakespeare, which contains 36 of the poet's plays, and is one of four folios due to go on sale at Sotheby's in London on May 23. Photo: Sotheby's via AP
About 750 copies were printed in 1623, of which about 230 are known to survive. All but a few are in museums, universities or libraries. One of the few First Folios in private hands sold for US$9.9 million at an auction in 2020.
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