SHAKESPEARE’S first collected book of plays has been sold for more than £2million
The edition of his First Folio, published seven years after his death in 1923, is one of just 750 ever printed, of which just 220 are known to survive.
It contains 36 of his plays and was originally sold unbound for 15 shillings – making it a flashy show of wealth for the buyer.
The Folio also includes original annotations, doodles and markings on 34 of its pages in at least five different hands.
It originally belonged to the Gordon family, with the names of John Gordon, Joan Gordona nd Alex Gordon scattered across the text.
It is now the property of an ”Important Private Collector” and was last sold in 1996.
Sotheby’s, who flogged the manuscript in New York last night (Jul 21), said: “It would be difficult to imagine a work of literature more iconic than the first collected edition of William Shakespeare’s plays – now commonly referred to as “The First Folio” – published in 1632.
“It is arguably the most important book in English Literature and, along with the King James Bible published just a few years earlier, one of the two greatest books of the English language.”