Set of Shakespeare folios to be sold in rare London auction

LONDON: A set of four Shakespeare folios estimated to be worth more than £3.5 million ($4.7 million) will go on sale in London next month, auction house Sotheby´s said on Wednesday.

The First Folio, published in 1623, was the first collection of William Shakespeare´s plays and is considered one of the most important books in English literature.

Without it, up to half of the writer´s plays would likely have been lost, including “Macbeth”, “Twelfth Night” and “Julius Caesar”.

Around 235 of the 750 copies believed to have been published during this initial printing have survived.

A new print run in 1632 gave rise to the Second Folio, which contained amendments to the initial folio, while the Third Folio containing seven additional plays appeared in 1664.

The third is the rarest of the folios, with many copies believed to have been lost in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The sequence was completed with the Fourth Folio in 1685.

Generations of bibliophiles have dreamed of owning a full set, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve with fewer copies in private hands.

The last time all four were offered as a single lot was in New York in 1989.

The set to be sold by Sotheby´s on May 23, with an estimate of £3.5 to £4.5 million, was brought together in 2016.