![\"shakespeare's](\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shakespeare-first-folio.jpg\")
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To buy, or not to buy, that was the question:\u00a0 whether or not to part with a few sweet dollars to purchase a rare, complete set of William Shakespeare\u2019s First Folio.\u00a0 The book was published in 1623 by Shakespeare\u2019s friends and fellow actors, John Heminge and Henry Condell, to preserve the playwright\u2019s place in history. The First Folio is a collection of Shakespeare\u2019s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies and is considered by scholars to be one of the most important and influential books ever published. Among the masterpieces in the book were Macbeth, The Tempest, and Julius Caesar.<\/p>\n
There were 750 copies printed, but only 235 copies are known to exist. Of those, just 56 are believed to be complete sets, and just six sets remain in private collections. This copy was consigned on behalf of Mills College in California and was accompanied by a\u00a0 letter from Edmond Malone (an 18th\/early 19th-century Shakespearian scholar), who had personally handled and confirmed its authenticity.<\/p>\n
The lot was estimated to bring $4-6M, and a 3-way bidding battle erupted on the phone, of course. When the hammer fell, the result was one for the record books!\u00a0 The new owner, Stephan Loewentheil, a book dealer, purchased it for $8.4M ($9.98M w\/p)!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"