Heath's Shakespeare

This was possibly James Heath's largest book project.  Originally launched with a prospectus in 1796 and with an exhibition at the Royal Academy of two of the initial plates 'Two Gentlemen of Verona' and 'Go bid the Huntsman'.  The project, involving the engraving of 22 relatively large plates, was not published until 1802 and was fully complete in 1804, being produced in a large six volume set (each volume approx 33cm x 26cm x 6cm).  The original publisher was GGJ & J Robinson but James Heath also sold some of the plates separately.  A later version was published in 1807 by John Stockdale and a further version was published in 1817 by J Murray, J Heath and Woodman.  A publication of the plates, together with Bartolozzi's plates illustrating Milton, was published in 1818 by H M'Lean.  The plates themselves consist of two sorts, some being full size with the engraved area at 21cm x 15cm while others are a half page oval with text below in the bottom half but still of the same overall size of approx 21cm x 15cm.

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