Shakespeare Complete Works owned by Czesaný in exile

William Shakespeare – The Complete Works London: Selfridge & Co. Ltd., n.d. (c. 1923–1935). 19 × 14 cm, 1312 [2] pp. Black pebbled leatherette with gilt crest to upper board, gilt spine titling, all edges gilt. Handsome mid-size Selfridge’s gift edition with ornate illustrated title page and portrait frontispiece and illustrated plates. Provenance: signed on the half-title “Karel Czesaný, London, March 1942.” Czesaný (1902–1978), a Czechoslovak lawyer and senior financial administrator, served in the government-in-exile in London as chief of the Ministry of Finance presidium and vice-chairman of the Commission for Transitional Measures. A clean, well-preserved copy with significant wartime exile provenance. Inv. H1