The Daniel copy
Folger First Folio 5 is frequently called the Daniel copy or the Burdett-Coutts copy for two of its previous owners. The British editor and writer George Daniel acquired it from a previous owner in 1841. After his death in 1864, Angela Burdett-Coutts, then the wealthiest unmarried heiress in England, purchased it at the sale of his book collection. The Daniel copy went to her husband when she died. After he passed away, her collection was put up for auction at Sotheby’s in 1922. The American bookseller A.S.W. Rosenbach purchased it and a second First Folio for Henry and Emily Folger.
This First Folio includes a few missing leaves, two in The Taming of the Shrew and one in King John. All were replaced with original leaves from other First Folios.
The oak casket
When Burdett-Coutts first bought the Daniel First Folio, Queen Victoria gave her an extraordinary new case in which to store it: a carved oak casket made from Herne’s Oak, a tree at Windsor that had been felled by a storm in 1863. The oak was associated with Shakespeare’s character Falstaff and The Merry Wives of Windsor. The casket, which is also part of the Folger collection, was designed to hold the First Folio and the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s poems (1640). It is not used to store the First Folio today.
View in the digital image collection
Related
Folger Finds: A carved oak casket for holding a Shakespeare First Folio
Casket, carved in an Elizabethan style 1866.Imagine buying a book and having the queen of England give you a special case in which to store it! That’s what happened after wealthy heiress Angela Burdett-Coutts purchased a Shakespeare First Folio in…
More
Shakespeare First Folio
The First Folio is the first published collection of Shakespeare’s plays, produced seven years after his death. Learn more about this book and see inside.
About the Folger First Folios
The Folger has 82 First Folios of Shakespeare, the largest collection in the world. Explore research, discoveries, and the stories behind the books.