New EP Deluxe Edition - A Midsummer Night's Dream

Looks like they're following in the Chaucer reproduction vein and doing a recreation on a most notable edition.

Recreation of the 1914 William Health Robinson illusrated edition.

Limited to 250 copies, hand signed and at least partially hand-made.

Similar price to the Chaucer, $99 USD x 5

What does everyone think?

It is a superb edition, but would rather buy four of the King James Bibles than one of Night Dreams. The Dreams is a smaller size, a few hundred pages, so it's up to a viewer and history of their interests. $500 is a bit pricey, If anyone has purchased one, post a photo if opened. They have produced a number of fantastic volumes over the years.

I really love my copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer, so I went ahead and ordered the copy of Midsummer as well. Yes, a bit pricey for the smaller book, but with only 250 copies I couldn't resist the temptation. They said it would ship shortly. I'll see if it comes in the next few days and if no one else has posted photos, I'll post some.

3: thank you! Please post LOTS of photos :)

3: Did it arrive yet? I'd love to see pics.

I still don't have my copy. Easton Press sent a copy standard media mail shipping so that was going to take 4+ weeks. It never arrived. I called them up, amazed that they would send a $500 book via standard media mail, and they appologized and said they would send a replacement. After waiting weeks, I called back only to find out they had sent the second book standard media mail as well. It never arrived. They just sent my thrid copy via UPS to my place of business. I really hope this will make it. I can't believe that they wouldn't express a $500 book.

>7 Django6924:

Hmmm, not to say the folks at EP aren't being scrupulously honest, but the likelihood of this scenario happening seems very slim. I'm as disbelieving as anyone, but the suspension in this case is killing me.

I don't think EP sends their books express, unless the buyer pays for it. However, for expensive books I know they require signature upon delivery. As Django noted, this is strange...

I was really surprised on this as well. My Kelmscott Chaucer was sent express US Post and signature required. I received it within a week. When I found out the Shakespeare was sent media mail, no signature required I was surprised and a bit irritated. When they did it twice, I was just mad. This time I had them send 3 day UPS to my business. I should have something by next week. I'll post pictures then. Apparently they still have stock on this, which means it is one of the few limited editions that didn't fly off their shelves.

If this happened multiple times, request addit'l tracking and double check on the address info. Very strange for a package to not arrive with such a rare book. Have purchased a number of volumes this year and never had any problems for delivery. I did however ask for questions concerning one recent signed edition. Specifically advised was only asking about info twice and did not want to buy at the time, still received it in the mail. Besides the one volume, all expensive editions requested a signature confirmation. Overall pleased about how the books were handled. The most upsetting time for an auction online occurred last year when a seller shipped multiple expensive books with a value over $1k in my opinion, it was supposedly delivered but was home the same day and it never was dropped off in the morning. No insurance or signature requested. The disappearance still puzzles me perhaps a neighbor decided to keep a miss delivered package for their own gain, another was the same but shown up three weeks later with markings of a wrong delivery resent. Even I received someones package once last year.

This is the first time I have had a problem with EP. I have been receiving EP volumes for several years, at several locations. i was really surprised at their shipping method on this given the high price point. The entire time during this period, I have been receiving other volumes with no delivery problems to my PO Box, which I do to avoid having them sit on my front door and keep them climate controlled. In my opinion, someone in the shipping chain had some partial idea what they were and swiped them. This third attempt is being tracked and requires shipping.

Hopefully it will be worth the wait. I'll post photos when it comes.

>11 hamletscamaro: The best way to look into the shipping is file a complaint with the company who shipped for Easton, this will show up on record packages are not arriving and with more written documents it may help find out who has the books. From memory I have heard a postal worker was caught with theft and fired. The time my package went missing different carriers were in place, can't prove if it was intentional or a mistake for my own package, received a large amount of mail with a small percentage of lost packages, miss delivered or dishonest sellers who had no intention of delivery. You wouldn't believe one seller who had over 100 accounts, nearly all closed now since there were so many complaints, used extortion and 'friends' to get away so often. To cut the story short Google Ben Anderson and Rip Off Report. Once received a DVD with my name on it, never ordered and never received back a reply from a post card, possibly did a switch with a package to cover their tracks. You can never be too careful. Any boxes heavier than 5 lbs I use duct tape & occasionally a signature confirmation to make sure it arrives to the correct address.

I too once had an expensive purchase from Easton Press go missing (at the time, it was the most expensive item I had ever purchased from them). A single phone call and they shipped me another set without question. I never found out what happened to the first shipment...

My copy arrived UPS overnight and required a signature.

Well, all you people who ordered this thing, let's have some pictures already! :)

My copy is coming UPS. I tracked it and it should be here Tuesday. I'll post some pictures shortly after that. I am hoping that I will be pleasantly surprised.

I finally got my EP Deluxe Edition - A Midsummer Night's Dream today. My overall impressions are very good. The quality of this piece is high. The cover is not as deeply embossed as the Kelmscott Chaucer, but the bindings are nice. There is no exterior gilt on the pages, they are rough cut on the side and bottom, with a green head at the top. The pages are nice and hefty, and whereas it doesn't have the same linen content of the Kelmscott, it the paper stock is a nice thick acid free paper, with tissue bound in between all the color plates. The plates themselves are all mounted with a nice gilt border which is also embossed on those pages. The book has many, many black and white illustrations throughout; almost one on every other page. These range from full page woodcuts, to smaller page vignettes. The clamshell case is the same high quality as the Kelmscott, but this time they made the improvement of putting the title on the spine.

As you can see, this is edition 250 of 250. I don't know if this is the last copy, or if they just gave me the last of the run since two have already been lost in shipping to me. I don't mind. It will be a happy addition to my library.

I'm attaching some photos. Sorry for the poor quality. These are taken at night, with a poor camera, and with the wrong background. But hopefully this gives you some idea of what the book is like.

IMGhttp://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/f9/66/f96641d470bbbdd63722b624167434b41716.../IMG
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IMGhttp://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/8c/f3/8cf3107c2b1deeb637369624167434b41716.../IMG
IMGhttp://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/42/19/4219b88815a1dc5637365624167434b41716.../IMG
IMGhttp://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/e2/68/e268bff50e32092637361624167434b41716.../IMG
IMGhttp://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/2c/43/2c43b43ad0c9898637357624167434b41716.../IMG
IMGhttp://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/4a/1d/4a1d1679d880f5c637353624167434b41716.../IMG
IMGhttp://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/5c/fa/5cfa607bfeccdba63734f624167434b41716.../IMG
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IMGhttp://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/7a/fe/7afe02ab8aed596637347624167434b41716.../IMG

Okay, here are the photos:

> 19

Beautiful. Thanks for posting those photographs. It's good to see that Easton produce LE's every bit as nice as those from the Folio Society.

Yes, it's a beautifully produced book, hamletscamaro. It's interesting to compare it to the 2001 Folio Society edition, also based on the 1914 Constable. The FS version was not an LE, but has the same binding design in decorated cloth. Also the colour illustrations are not mounted, as in this superb Easton version.

boldface, do you have the FS edition? I found a picture of said edition online, and it does indeed look like the same cover, only in material, on the FS edition. It would be interesting to compare the interior quality. Overall I am still very pleased, although I would hazard a guess that the FS edition was less expensive at the time. The FS copy that I currently found for ale on Abebooks was only $325.

> 19 hamletscamaro, thankyou for posting those images, it certainly looks like a fine volume. I only tend to 'watch' this group as I don't subscribe or purchase direct from Easton, but I do find it interesting and informative. Would you be able to give your opinion, please, on the quality of the reproduction of the colour illustrations, in comparison to a 'standard' Easton volume?

I have several Easton Press books but now I tend to only look for those that have reproductions of woodcuts and other mono illustrations as I have been bitterly disappointed with the apparent laziness of Easton's colour reproduction work, and would generally prefer the Heritage edition, if I can't find an affordable LEC, for that very reason.

I would hope that they would really up their game for a LE, and would be very interested to read your opinion.

HuxleyTheCat, I would definitely say that the quality of these illustration reproductions is definitely MUCH higher than your standard EP edition. The average EP classic going for $50 normally only has one or two colors for the illustrations, and even then, there aren't too many illustrations for each book. As others have commented, this is standard EP practice and I think many of these illustrations are associated with these editions going back while, and it also helps keep the cost down. The color plates in this Midsummer Night's Dream are full color, printed on nice stock, and then individually attached to each page by hand, and separated by a tissue page from the other pages. It is very much a quality edition.

I have a couple hundred EP books, and find that those that cost more definitely have higher quality. Besides the Kelmscott Chaucer (the finest EP volume I own) and the Midsummer Night's Dream listed above, a recent example of a very nice quality EP book is Spenser's Faeire Queene with Illustrations by Walter Crane (still available, product code 2097, 6 payments of $65). These volumes have beautiful woodcut illustrations, and although they are still black and white, the 3 volumes are literally filled with Crane's original art. I really like this edition, and these in part reinforced my faith that EP could produce a quality product. Ideally I would have liked to have seen a higher linen count in the paper, but that would have just driven up the cost a bit more. I would absolutely recommend the Spenser books.

Not to drone on too much, but I recently had the opportunity to acquire and compare EP's Andrew Lang series to a recent copy of the Folio Society's Andrew Lang edition as well. Specifically, I have the Green Fairy Book from each company. Illustrations in each is completely different. Folio Society has full color illustrations by Julian de Narvaez, a modern artists. These are high quality, printed on semi-glossy stock, but limited to 14 illustrations, with only a few black and white line drawings in the book. The book is very high quality, and although it has fewer illustrations for the kids to look at, I really like it.

The Easton Press Green Fairy Book, is much smaller in size, and therefore has smaller print, but has far more illustrations throughout; I would say a black and white illustration every 2-4 pages. These illustrations are by Henry J. Ford (1860-1941), and I believe are original to the books, if not, they must have been added very quickly after to subsequent editions. My six year old has more fun looking at the various pictures (although original fairy tales can be quite grim by today's standards). I enjoy the EP editions, but again, they apply their standard leather cover and gilt edging. I actually may partially prefer the freshness of the Folio edition, although I really can't make up my mind.

Hope this helps.

>24 hamletscamaro: Very many thanks for your comprehensive response hamletscamaro, it is much appreciated. I would be very nervous spending this sort of money on these new LEs - it looks like they are going to increase in frequency - but your post is most reassuring.

One of my favourite books from my entire collection is the Easton Leaves of Grass, which is just 'right' in so many ways; but my Easton Beowulf and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea volumes whilst looking great on the shelf, suffer in comparison with even the Heritage, let alone LEC, editions simply because of the way that the illustrations are treated.

Thanks also for the information on the Faeire Queen, which definitely looks to be worth serious consideration.

Yes, it certainly did help - HTC

hamletscamaro, thank you for the gorgeous pics!
That is a beautiful edition, no doubt! I really wish the price was $200 or $250 rather than $500. As it stands, it's too much for me, especially since EP also produced a beautiful copy of Midsummer Night's Dream in their Famous Editions set. That being said, I would still love to have a copy of this book (perhaps one day :)

Also, I think it's awesome that you got copy 250/250!
If I had to choose any number, it would be 1/250, but my next choice would be 250/250.

cheers,

-astropi

Thanks astopi. I called to see if they had additional copies or if this was indeed the last copy. They said they had additional copies, so I'm not sure if they just pulled this off the bottom of the stack, or if it was completely random. However, it is a little awesome this is the last one. I like it!

> 22

Sorry about the delay in replying. I've been away until a few days ago and have desparately been trying to catch up on all the posts on the FS Devotees and on this group!

I have the FS edition but not the Easton version to compare with it. From your photos I can say that the FS edition does not have tissue guards and was a cheaper book. However, the papers used (both text and glossy) are of excellent quality and weight. The actual contents and illustrations appear to be the same as in your edition.

Great pics. I just ordered this today, looking forward to getting it! Anyone else that has it have comments on your happiness with it for the cost?

Nice photos, don't know if it's worth it, I'd rather have gotten Chaucer

I think it is fantastic. Just received it last week. Size/scale wise, not near the Kelmscott or Ovid, but beauty wise and quality wise, just as nice. I think well worth it.

31: see, the thing is that the FS produced this volume a few years ago, and you can purchase it for $30-50. Of course it's not as nice as the EP DLE, but it's around 10 times cheaper and still high quality. I think EP made a mistake at pricing it so high, which is why it still has not sold out (but it looks like they've learned since then).

Sorry to resurrect an old topic, but I'm looking to part with my copy of of this book so I thought I'd offer it here before I go through the hassle of EBay.

Not looking to make a profit, so I'm selling it for $600 which is what I paid for it after shipping and duties. If anyone's interested let me know.