Sixty Watercolor and Gouache Paintings Paintings of the Characters in William Shakespeare's "Richard III"

1889-1890. NA. Very Good. A brilliant collection of original artwork covering the huge cast of the great Shakespearian tragedy and history play. Bööck's conception is full of color, and clearly aspired to historical fidelity, while also embodying late Victorian notions about historic dress, stagecraft and beauty -- one would not mistake these costumes for something that might be concocted today. His work bears some kinship to the sweet sentimentality of Kyd's illustrations of Dickensian characters, despite the very different nature of the material. Bööcke was a well-known book illustrator who had something of a specialty in Shakespearian costume. Samuel Miller published eight volumes of Shakespeare's plays with Bööcke's costume illustrations, including one volume on Richard III, for which these drawings were the original source. Each of the sixth illustrations is mounted on heavy card, signed by Bööcke, and usually dated, with the name of the character written in the upper corner. All the major and secondary, and even tertiary characters are here represented, excepting the ghosts, as are the bit walk-on generic characters, such as a soldier, a noble, etc. Richard himself is shown in four costumes, which of course marks his progression in the play from the Duke of Gloucester to monarch. The typical plate is about 24 by 18 cm, with some slightly larger, and the smaller plates being two or three cm narrower. At sometime in the past the plates were mounted into an album, as evident from roundish abrasions by the corners on the backs, with no impact on the illustrations. There is an occasional fox mark or the like, but other than edge age toning, the plates read as generally clean'