Excerpt from Prospectus for Publishing an American Edition of Boydell's Illustration of Shakespeare<br><br>By some means which cannot now be accounted for, all the plates have found their way to this country, and the one hundred, weighing nearly 4000' pounds, have been purchased by Dr. S. Spooner, of this city. This gentleman, who has long been conversant with works of art, has been for many months silently but steadily pushing on the work of restoring the has been peculiarly fortunate in securing the services of M1 George Parker, an engraver of no ordinary merit. It is a little sin gular that this gentleman was a pupil of the celebrated Thew, when the latter was engaged on these same plates originally, and as Thew was considered almost the inventor of the art of stipple engraving, it will be seen that there is every reason to suppose Mr. Parker well qual ified to do justice to the 'w'ork. Dr. Spooner spares no pains or'money in the prosecution of the labor,'and has succeeded in restoring a num ber of the plates to such perfection that proofs from them cannot be dis tinguished from the original impressions. Some two years will be con sumed in accomplishing the entire restoration and publication, and al though he will be 'obliged to expend a large sum of money, there can be no doubt that he will be compensated by the admirers of the arts in the United States.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.