Classic literature

[faceless]

Rare copy of Shakespeare's work on display at Craven Museum in Skipton
4th October 2010

A rare copy of William Shakespeare’s first folio of works, published in 1623, which has languished in a safe at Craven Museum, in Skipton, for decades, is to go on display. The book, donated to the museum in the 1930s, was recently confirmed as a first folio, one of only 49 in the UK. The book is minus the comedies, but contains all the Bard’s other works.

A room is being constructed to display the document in a special cabinet and accompanied by an audio visual facility which will also relate how it came into the possession of the museum. It will be kept permanently on display and one page will be turned every few weeks. Finance for the room has come from Renaissance Yorkshire, a cultural funding agency and from a bequest.

Acting curator Amy Ball said: “This is thrilling. The first folio is possibly the most important book in the English language and we have a copy. There was some thought that it might be a second folio, which of course wouldn’t be so precious. But Shakespeare expert Anthony West, who has been compiling a list of all the first folios around the world, came to Skipton recently and confirmed it was a first folio. We were amazed. Roughly 750 first folios were published and there are only 240 left in the world, 49 in Britain.”

She did not want to reveal its value and stressed it was not in perfect condition. But a pristine first folio recently sold at Sotheby’s for £6 million. The Skipton folio was bought in the early years of the last century by mill baron John Wilkinson, who established Primrose Mill in Embsay, near Skipton. He left it to his daughter who in the 1930s presented it to the museum, Miss Day explained. Mr Wilkinson was something of an entrepreneur and as well as owning a cotton mill he blended tobacco and marketed his own brand as Skipton Shag.

[SpursFan1902]

Wow, that is so cool....original Bard...WOW!