Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - November - 2009 Issue
The Zaehnsdorf Reference Library from Oak Knoll Books
Books await restoration by Zaehnsdorf's after 1939 fire.
Item 225 is a book about the Shakespeare you don't know so well, Susannah: William Shakespeare and His Daughter Susannah. This 1931 book by Frank Marcham tells everything he could find about her. Susannah was the playwright's oldest daughter. She married a physician, Dr. John Hall, so she would have been of reasonably good means. Shakespeare left the bulk of his estate to her, but there doesn't appear to have been much in the way of great interest she received, such as manuscripts of her father's plays. Susannah died in 1649, and her gravestone notes she was "witty above her sex," likely an attribute inherited from her father. Susannah's daughter, Elizabeth, who died in 1670, was Shakespeare's last living descendent. This copy of Marcham's book was inscribed by the author to Ernest Zaehnsdorf. $75.
Item 199 was a book put together by Zaehnsdorf to display their skills in restoring books: "The Pantechnicon" Fire 1939, Specimens of Books Restored & Rebound by Zaehnsdorf Ltd. It contains 17 before and after photographs of books salvaged from a warehouse fire. $450.
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