Iphigenie auf Tauris. Ein Schauspiel von Goethe.

Doves Press, Hammersmith, 1912

From the 1899 Weimar Text. A near fine copy of 200 printed on paper from a total edition of 232 copies (32 on vellum).

Description: Original full limp vellum with title in gilt on spine. Octavo: 24 × 17 cm; pp. 110, [1]. Printed in black and red on Doves handmade paper, top edge cut, fore and lower edges trimmed. Inner pastedown stamped The Doves Bindery.

Provenance: Neat ownership inscription (Sutterlin script) to 2nd blank flyleaf: Ernst Bertram, Bonn 1924.

Ref.: Cobden-Sanderson 1922, 141; Tidcombe DP28

Condition: Covers slightly soiled. Internally bright and clean, no browning to endpapers.

Notes: Interest in Doves Press editions was very high in Germany. Therefore, after Shakespeare’s plays, Cobden-Sanderson decided to print three plays by Goethe in the original German text: Die Leiden des Jungen Werther (1911), Iphigenie auf Tauris (1912) and Torquato Tasso (1913). In addition, Cobden-Sanderson received requests from German dealers to increase both the number of copies on vellum and the number of special vellum copies with gold initials. The appetite in Germany for the finest editions seemed undimmed by the prices Cobden-Sanderson was forced to charge (Tidcombe 2002, 66). This led to the unusually high edition of 32 copies on vellum for Iphigenia on Tauris (5 of them with gold initials) in addition to the rather moderate edition of 200 copies on paper.