The book that has been inside this box is pretty important, but today it is all about the box. You see, in 1913, the members of the all-male book collecting club in Cleveland, the Rowfant Club, pooled together to present their outgoing president, Willis Vickery, a gift: a copy of Shakespeare's first folio from 1623. That is a hell of a gift, and it needed a proper presentation. So the old boys at the club had a box made at the Rowfant Bindery.
The box is a work of art all by itself. Stamped on the green morocco spine is:
Shakespeare
First Folio
1623
That makes it look damned impressive on a bookshelf. Then, when you open it up, you see ornate gold-stamped doors that remind you again, "Shakespeare, First Folio, 1623." Got it, the box is holding the first folio.
Swing those doors open, and you enter the silk-lined reliquary for the most revered book of English literature. Gold stamped on the sides are the names of each member of the Rowfant Club that contributed. Nice touch, they each get a kind of forever association with the book!
The Rowfant Bindery only lasted four years (1910-1914), but it did some fabulous work and this box may be their crowning achievement. It stands alone as a masterpiece in binding work, but for anyone using this copy of the first folio it also creates a sacred aura by building layers of cultural trappings the reader must traverse to reach the book within.
One Easter egg for those looking: the Rowfant Club emblem is twice stamped on the box: a gopher holding a candle holder. Each member of the Rowfant Club has his own candle holder that they use to claim their spot during their dinners. When a member dies, the Club puts a snuffer over the candle holder and places it on a shelf in their old mansion in Cleveland. The candle holders remain, snuffed, as a reminder to all of the living members of their attachment to the club, but also their own mortality. But here, the emblem of the candle is commemorating a book that they found to be immortal.
To take a look, ask for Hickmott 1.
The book that has been inside this box is pretty important, but today it is all about the box. You see, in 1913, the members of the all-male book collecting club in Cleveland, the Rowfant Club, pooled together to present their outgoing president, Willis Vickery, a gift: a copy of Shakespeare's first folio from 1623. That is a hell of a gift, and it needed a proper presentation. So the old boys at the club had a box made at the Rowfant Bindery.
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