The Birds and Beasts of Shakespeare. Text by Arthur F. Kinney. Illustrated with Woodengravings by Alan James Robinson

Easthampton, MA: Cheloniidae Press, 1990. One of 125 copies, all on Cheloniidae Rag paper, the first book of the press with Cheloniidae watermark, each signed by the artist, Alan James Robinson from a total issue of 155 copies, with an extra suite of the woodengravings and etching laid in loose in tan cloth over boards folder housed in clamshell box with book. . Page size: 10-3/8 x 15- 7/8 x inches - the size of the first folio edition of Shakespeare - Dedication Page, Half-title, engraved frontispiece portrait of Shakespeare in rondel surrounded by the animals, Titlepage, i-iii [iv-v] 1-87 [88-92]pp. Bound: full tan morocco by Claudia Cohen and Sarah Creighton, title stamped in gold gilt on front panel within a blind rule at outer edge, spine panelled, marbled endpapers, housed in tan cloth over boards clamshell box with leather label on spine, title stamped in gold gilt. Illustrated with 54 woodengravings depicting the birds and beasts found in Shakespeare's plays and poems, plus two portraits of the Bard: one etching and one woodengraving. The woodengravings were accomplished by Robinson on end-grain English boxwood from T.N. Lawrence & Sons of London. The type was set at M & H Type Foundry of San Francisco and printed by Harold Patrick McGrath in black within a caramel-colored rule on each page with Shakespeare's own words in caramel ink. This book uses Shakespeare's original texts addressing the natural history, folklore, and mythology of the birds and beasts in his plays. The text was written by Arthur F. Kinney, Thomas W. Copeland Professor Literary History at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Certainly one of the most ambitious and most beautiful books of the Press, published to mark their tenth anniversary.