We recently visited “The Poet of Them All”: William Shakespeare and Miniature Designer Bindings from the Collection of Neale and Margaret Albert, an exhibition currently on view at the newly renovated Yale Center for British Art. It features nearly one hundred miniature editions of works written or inspired by William Shakespeare, all bound with artistic designer bindings commissioned by Neale Albert J.D. ’61 in the past decade.
Albert imposed no restrictions, asking each artist to craft his or her own interpretation of a given work. Among them are miniature Shakespeare editions published by William Pickering and the Knickerbocker Press in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as several dozen copies of a miniature book illustrating the lyrics and music to “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” a song from Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate, that was published by Albert’s Piccolo Press in 2009.
The exhibition was curated by Elisabeth Fairman, Chief Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the YCBA, and is accompanied by a catalog designed by Miko McGinty. We encourage you to check it out before it closes on August 21st!
All images courtesy of the Yale Center for British Art. Pictured above: one of our favorite objects was a whimsical edition of Brush Up Your Shakespeare bound by Angela James in 2011. The goatskin cover features red, white, and printed calfskin onlays, as well as an engraved line from the song.
This edition of Julius Caesar was published by the Knickerbocker Press in 1910 and bound by Santiago Brugalla in 2004, with tooling and miniature hand-painted portrait medallions by John Hodgson.
This Kandinsky-inspired edition of Brush Up Your Shakespeare was bound by Derek Hood in 2010 and has a goatskin cover, with multiple colored goatskin onlays.
This ornate edition of King Henry IV was published by the Knickerbocker Press in 1910 and bound by George Kirkpatrick in 2007. It is accompanied by a casket enclosure, and its leather cover features embossed silver.