By the end of the 19th Century, traditional Shakespeare illustration as practiced by Kenny Meadows, John Gilbert, H. C. Selous and the other illustrators featured here had become superseded by photography. Illustrated editions now relied on the camera instead of pen and ink. This development also coincided with the rise of hugely famous Shakespearean actors such as Ellen Terry and Henry Irving whose partnership and work at the Lyceum Theatre fascinated the public and would become increasingly influential. The photographs below (or “photogravure” prints) are taken from three editions at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth-centuries where both Ellen Terry and Henry Irving feature heavily. Charles Knight’s Virtue Edition is a highlight. It is a beautiful publication (and his third publication to feature in the archive), sold in parts, but in the space it gives to the photographs and its overall quality feels like a precursor to a modern-day coffee table book. Cassell’s updated edition still featured Selous’s original illustrations from the 1860s, but as an incentive for potential purchasers to buy it again, it was offered up with 35 photogravure plates. Finally, Collin’s Clear-Type single volume edition is perhaps the most utilitarian – the images are not particularly well produced  – but it is a fascinating collection, nevertheless, and is reproduced in full below. There are some duplicates across the editions, mostly, unsurprisingly, of Terry and Irving. If you would like to explore a mid–nineteenth century attempt at using daguerrotypes to capture actors from the period such as William Macready and Charles Kean, then do check out the John Tallis edition. Please enjoy the images, and do let me know what you think of them!

Charles Knight’s Virtue Edition, 1905

 

Cassell’s Illustrated Shakespeare, reprint published in the 1890s

 

Collins’ Clear-Type Press Edition, published around 1900