Limited Editions with limited stock per count-downs in progress

Per the Folio Society website on Friday 20 October these are the Limited Editions with count-downs in progress, and the number of copies left are as follows:

Copies

None - Goya: Disasters of War - Sold out as from 12 Sept 2017
001 - The Golden Ass
027 - Just So Stories

032 - Sharpe's Birds of Paradise
036 - The Odes of Horace
043 - The Duke's Children - special hand-bound version

055 - Alice in Wonderland
124 - Micrographia
141 - The Call of Cthulha etc
228 - The Door in the Wall

The Letterpress Shakespeare volumes with counters are as follows:

Copies

None - Henry VI Part 2 - Sold out as from circa 13 September 2017
None - Henry VI Part 3 - Sold out as from circa 13 September 2017
None - Pericles - Sold out as from circa 13 September 2017

003 - Winter's Tale
006 - Twelfth Night
005 - Henry IV Part 2

008 - Titus Andronicus
012 - Troilus and Cressida
012 - King Henry VIII

014 - Coriolanus
015 - King John
015 - The Two Noble Kinsman

Above updated early evening on Friday 20 October 2017.

Interesting. Is that the first time Alice has had a countdown marker?

>3 EclecticIndulgence:

It's at a level where, if they ever have an LE sale again, it would be a likely candidate. I bought it on first publication and it is spectacular. One of my favourites. But then, it's all subjective.

>3 EclecticIndulgence: I'm with you on that. I have three other of the vellum bound series and I love them. If the counter falls low enough I will pull the trigger even at full price.

I am surprised the Liber Bestiarum does not have a counter yet. It was published in 2008, correct? I debated getting it during the sale but couldn't pull the trigger. Hoping it will last a while longer while I save up.

>6 kristinemoore:

It's well worth saving for. I recommend it very highly.

>6 kristinemoore: One of my favorite LEs but with almost 2000 copies it will last a while. Note that there are plenty of copies available on the used market for much less money.

Interesting that Micrographia is ahead of a The Call of Cthulhu by a not insubstantial amount.

>9 sviswanathan: Probably because there are two versions of Cthulhu.

>11 EclecticIndulgence: Probably because Micrographia uses leather. ;)

Real leather, too!

>10 kdweber: Oh yeah that makes sense!

>13 sviswanathan: It is apart from the leather binding also considerably cheaper which is why I opted to buy Micrographia and The Call of Cthulhu standard Edition.

>14 c_schelle: I have over 60 FS LEs including Micrographia (limitation #2) but I also chose The Call of Cthulhu standard Edition.

There is now only one Goya Limited Edition left per the FS counter.

Even if I were a Lovecraft fan, I seriously doubt I'd go for the LE. In my mind, an expensive LE needs to be a complete package. Paying over $400 just for a different binding and a Solander sarcophagus? No, thanks. And I wouldn't want to encourage the practice of taking a standard text block, slapping a new binding on it and calling it a limited edition. Lazy and boring way to churn out LEs, IMHO. Give me something unique and special all the way, like Micrographia or LEs of War Poets. Just my take on it, I appreciate there are plenty of people who are ready to pay to make standard editions a little more special.

> 17elladan0891

Fortunately Lovecraft doesn't appeal to me either, or I would have had a bit of a dilemma since I think their price for the Limited Edition isn't really adequate for what you get compared to the regular edition. What really appealed to me about the LE and is missing from the other one are the extra illustrations, 8 black and gold mandalas.

The listing of Limited Editions in low numbers shown at the start of this thread was updated today. Not much change.

I am wondering whether the first ever Limited Editions sale was such a smart move for Folio.

It might perhaps have been better to have introduced more generous credit terms with installments over more months.

I have updated the table at the start of this thread.

I was surprised to see that four of these Limited Editions have sold out this week so far.

Thanks for the updates!

>21 Chawton: Its surprising that it happened so soon *after* the big limited editions sale.

>23 sviswanathan:

It may well have been as a result of a post sale inventory check (and subsequent revision of stock numbers).

>24 LesMiserables:

That seems plausible!

>17 elladan0891:
Both versions of Call of Cthulhu were, I think, designed in parallel by the same guy and released to the general market at the same time. So both could fairly be said to have been 'the complete package'.
Therefore, I don't know that it's fair to regard one as inferior to the other. Just different. Each is unique and special.
You pays your money and takes your choice, as I think we've disagreed before :-)

(You'd have a better case for saying the leatherbound Duke's Children was a lazy upgrade although it was already an LE.)

26: I agree. I'm not even sure exactly what "complete package" means? Also, as for making a "standard edition" a "little" more special, isn't that true for just about every limited edition? All that said, to each their own, although I agree that having a limited limited edition (Duke's Children) was a bit too much...

>26 Cat_of_Ulthar: your opinion that both were worked on at the same time as if they were two seperate but parallel projects while the end result is the same text block with different binding (and a 270 GBP price hike), is at least a debatable point. I simply cannot get over the fact that such a massive increase in price basically gets you a regular edition with a fancier binding (which, as has been hammered on before on this forum, is not even leather and includes marbling in provoking colours) and a bigger box.

At least with the Duke's Children the book was already a limited edition in scope and the normal edition will be more rare than with Lovecraft, making it more unique to own.

Updated table at start.

>8 kdweber: thanks for your advice. I found a pristine copy secondhand for $600 including shipping - in my own state as well.

>32 kristinemoore: Congrats, it's a beautiful facsimile.

Updated table just now.

For the Letterpress Shakespeare series, I'm curious whether those remaining counts are for copies printed or copies bound and finished? I suspect it's the latter, and some of the actual print run may end up in cheaper bindings, like the recent Twelfth Night.

>34 Chawton: Updated table just now.

This is a service I really appreciate. Thank you.

I just noticed that the Alice in Wonderland LE is now down to 15 copies remaining. My fingers are itching....

>37 Fierylunar: Mine are itching too and there is the £5 off code ;-). I was hoping for a bigger rebate, but I doubt there will be something else before Christmas or is there usually a voucher before Christmas? ( This is my first Christmas being aware of FS)

The Alice is a real temptation. I'm probably going to pull the trigger and hide it from my better half for a while.

Also : 19 left for Just So Stories LE.

>38 c_schelle: You can never know for sure of course, but I would say it's highly unlikely for several reasons:
- There hasn't been a big discount voucher before Christmas these last few years if I recall correctly.
- The 'Order by...' for Christmas delivery has passed for America, Canada and ROW, with Europe having just 5 days remaining. Giving out a huge discount now would be too late for most customers' Christmas shopping.
- The New Year Sale (NYS) is around the corner and most customers will hold out on huge purchases in anticipation of that sale.

The Alice in Wonderland seems set to sell out within a few days now, with roughly 25 copies sold in little over a week (it was at fewer than 40 when FS posted on November 25th).

>40 Fierylunar: Thanks for the info. I put in the order this morning. With only 14 left when I ordered I didn't want to gamble. I had an eye on it since the LE sale when over 70 were left and hoped for a second LE sale with the Alice included. But they seemed to be flying of the shelves as of lately.

>39 Niurn: I bought Just so Stories with Gullivers Travels during the LE sale in the summer :-).

Edit for clarity and typos.

>41 c_schelle:

Good catch on the Just So Stories--there are only 19 left.

>40 Fierylunar: The Alice in Wonderland seems set to sell out within a few days now.

Alice watchers may wish to know there are only five left. It's now or never, folks.

>43 folio_books:
Guess it's never. Sold out.

>44 Jayked:

Wow. In under 50 minutes.

Just did a quick check. "Just So" is still hanging in at 19, The Odes of Horace down to 32 but the strong seller seems to be Micrographia, only 58 left now.

Got by Gill Troilus and Canterbury Tales today on my 50th birthday :-) Very nice books.

>47 LesMiserables: Happy Birthday, Steve. Does Saga operate down-under?

>47 LesMiserables: Happy Birthday, happy reading!

>48 HuxleyTheCat:

HA. Yes but they brand as Saggy 😊

>49 NLNils:

Thanks!

>50 LesMiserables: Interesting to hear that it's Saggy down under for the over 50s.

>51 xrayman:
No, in Australia most ☀ worshipers are wrinkly by the age of 30.

>47 LesMiserables:
Happy birthday. Remember, 50 is the new 37!
Are you still touring in Scotland and freezing?

>53 wcarter:
Thank you and yes will be frozen until I land back in Australia on Jan 15th. Good to be back home for a while.

>46 folio_books:
I was keeping an eye on Micrographia'a ticker throughout the summer before pulling the trigger at the end of September, and it was selling at a very slow pace of only about 4-5 copies a month. After I ordered my copy, there were 128 copies left. Looking at >1 Chawton:, a month later, at the end of October, there were 124 copies left - the same pace of 4 a month. I wonder if exposure at the British Book Design & Production Awards, where Micrographia won its category, generated all these new sales.

>47 LesMiserables: Happy Birthday! Congratulations on your new books.

My copy of Alice in Wonderland arrived yesterday. I can see now why it won the BBD&P Award. It's such a gorgeous book. I'm really happy to have bought it.

>55 elladan0891: I wonder if exposure at the British Book Design & Production Awards, where Micrographia won its category, generated all these new sales.

That was my assumption - sales have really accelerated since the award was announced. Deservedly so, I might add.

Because unlike ugly Lovecraft vegan edition (even though it won too), this is the real deal for Micrographia, I will have to get one before they go down too quick, just got Alice in Wonderland, and want to save up for the winter sale. Too much intensity with all these books selling out.

>58 Comatoes:
Keep an eye on the counter - only 53 left, might not last long at this pace.
Btw, Lovecraft didn't win. Micrographia was the only Folio book that won its category.

You're right, I was looking at the shortlisted limited and fine binding category.

Will try to check out tonight so I don't have to keep looking at the ticker.

I just perused the LE and found that the Bible - King James Version and the Winchester Psalter now have counters with 47 and 70 copies left respectively.

I'm mentoring an estimated OOP date for Horace thanks to >1 Chawton: data. I bought Alice just in time thanks to this thread.

So, really, just sharing back the collective work :

>62 Niurn: Nice summary, although a linear estimate for the estimated months might not be accurate due to the surge in demand for the last 10-20 copies. FOMO is a very strong emotion (fear of missing out).

>63 Raenas: : I agree ! Will update it time to time and see if i can track accelerating sales with more reference points.

Very useful! Thank you.

32 left of Micrographia now, it simply looked to lovely to miss out on. It`s going somewhat fast now, in terms of FS LE`s

In the past three months, counters have still been progressing down steadily, compared to >62 Niurn:. No new counters were added since.

Bible KJV 42 (-4)
Door in the Wall 210 (-2)
Duke's Children 36 (-4)
Just So Stories 14 (-2)
Micrographia 0 (-33)
Odes of Horace 24 (-8)
Sharpe's Birds 6 (-21)
Cthulhu 71 (-33)
Winchester Psalter 68 (-2)

>67 Fierylunar: :
Thanks for reminding me ! Should have done it earlier. Is that readable for everyone ?

>67 Fierylunar: >68 Niurn:
Very interesting.
There is a rush of sales when a LE us released, then a very slow trickle of sales, and another rush at the end.
Makes marketing very tricky.

>69 wcarter: So we should be seeing a steep drop off for Just So Stories next? Somehow I doubt it. I bet the next steep fall off will be for Call of Cthulhu.

One less hand bound Dukes Children as of Tuesday's order. Making way through FS Palliser series and came to realize LE FS is the only source for the Dukes Children revised edition; made it an easy decision to break down and buy this beautiful book.

>70 kdweber: I would expect to see the same trend. Just So Stories has not been a hot item in the LE sale and sold even worse after that ended, Cthulhu has steadily sold ~10 copies a month since the first hype died down. With a little run for the last copies it might sell out in 3-4 months. Odes of Horace might also beat Just So Stories, although that will most likely be a closer race.

Apparently, you never know when the run on the last copies will start. I did not expect Sharp's Birds to start its final sprint already, especially after seeing the slow sales during the Holiday season.

>68 Niurn: Thanks for the graph! Logarithmic scales do funky things to my mind, which means it took me a while to understand properly. I wonder how it would look without the Door in the Wall. Tracking that ticker will be a tedious task which will take decades if not more. It does not look to be selling out any time soon, even with a proper discount.

In looking over the lists of FS Limited Edition books with limited stock, one set that appears to have escaped proper notice from the FSD faithful is the 2-volume edition of 'Japan: Described and Illustrated by the Japanese' (2012). The original 10-volume set published in 1897 is a landmark, one of the most beautiful illustrated books of the 19th century. It is certainly comparable to the David Roberts FS LE facsimile of 'The Holy Land' and it has immense historical significance which is well described in the FS listing.

The FS has clearly gone to great lengths to produce a facsimile edition that is as close as possible to the original hand-coloured photographs, yet 'Japan' seems to have sold poorly to date. That is a shame because the vintage late 19th-century photographs of Japan, its society and landscapes (both B&W and the hand-coloured photographs), are extraordinary and the text is interesting and highly informative.

Conceivably, because it has sold poorly to date it may be discounted in the future, similar to the 3-vol. facsimile of 'The Faerie Queene' in the recent New Year's blowout sale. If so, give this one a careful look.

>72 EclecticIndulgence: EclecticIndulgence

I stand corrected. However, would still have sprung for the LE to keep the set in the FS family.

>74 dlphcoracl: it does not have a live stock ticker and therefore has not yet been included in any list in this thread (compare to e.g. http://www.foliosociety.com/book/SBP). There's no way of saying whether or not this LE has limited stock or not.

A better place to post might be the relevant recent LE thread (https://www.librarything.com/topic/289172).

>74 dlphcoracl:

As far as I know the only sale to have featured the Faerie Queene facsimile was that of last July-August. Japan did feature in that sale, at 800 USD / 465 (or was it 445?) GBP.

>76 Fierylunar:

That is why I posted on THIS topic thread, precisely because it is NOT anywhere near being 'limited stock', has sold poorly, and is overlooked by many of the posters on FSD - and it shouldn't be. Certainly worth a serious look by anyone of the FSD-ers who can afford this LE book.

>77 terebinth:

IIRC, 'The Faerie Queene' was offered at a mouth-watering 30% or 33% discount to its list price of $895. US dollars in the FS sale at the beginning of this year (2018) and it was a steal at that price. If a similar discount is ever offered on 'Japan', knowledgeable FS devotees should not pass on it.

>78 dlphcoracl:

This is an odd conflict of memories: mine is telling me that Japan, like the Faerie Queene, did feature with a discount of around 30% in the one and only Folio Society limited editions sale so far, which ran during last July and August, and that the sale at the start of this year included no limited editions at all. Perhaps a third member can confirm one way or the other. My FS account confirms that I bought the Faerie Queene for £385, a £200 discount, on July 7th last.

>78 dlphcoracl: Japan is a great LE, one of my favorites but its high price point has had a huge effect on its selling. It's the second priciest FS LE that I've bought (after 1001 Nights). At least FS learned something and shrunk the 1001 Nights limitation to 750 copies from the 1000 copies for Japan.

The Faerie Queene was not on sale last January. It’s on my buy list and specifically looked for it.

This thread (http://www.librarything.com/topic/263233#6109447) has details of all the LEs that were on sale in the first and only LE sale in July 2017. Faerie Queene was on sale then, as was Japan.

Sharpes Birds of Paradise is now sold out. wonder which LE will be next?

Quick update after "Birds" hits OOP.

Was Mort the quickest of the LEs to be fully amortized (pun fully intended)?

>85 ultrarightist: Yes, I believe Mort is the only LE to have sold out in less than a day.

Folio's ‘inspired by the East’ marketing leaflet arrived in this morning’s post. It includes a page on the Japan LE and states ‘Only 100 hand-numbered copies remain.’

I find this a little strange as there were only 16 copies remaining more than two and-a-half years ago when I ordered my own copy, urged to do so before it sold out, by Folio’s dubious marketing methods.

>87 bookfair_e:

That is why I asked them the question before I ordered The Duke's Children and I received an assurance that there would be no more after the 36 have sold out. These Readers Digest-inspired methods are despicable, in my view.

12 copies of Just so stories and 79 of the LE I Am Legend after tonight’s foray onto the LE page :).

Do Folio ever offer limited edition discounts, i.e. for the entirety of the LE collection (not only Letterpress Shakespeare)?

Thanks

>90 Andreas12:

Several times Folio members have received coupons giving a reduction - £50 in the UK - on all but the most recent LEs. That happened pretty much annually for a while, but perhaps won't happen again now that the Society has cut off its members. Then last year, quite out of the blue early in July, came a sale offering discounts, some of them deep, on, again, most LEs excepting the most recent few. Whether that may be repeated, this year or any other year, is anyone's guess.

I see. Well, I suppose that The Door in the Wall and Japan won’t sell out for quite some time, and so one can wait and hope for the best. I guess.

>92 Andreas12:

True, and not long to wait to find out whether the LE sale is to be an annual event. I've a hunch that it's nore likely to be repeated next year rather than this, but my record on hunches isn't good. Both titles were included in last year's sale, Japan with a £200 reduction: as it didn't sell out then, it does seem unlikely to do so at all quickly at full price.

Celebrating the "I am Legend" LE OOP with a chart in linear scale for a beautiful FOMO-dive pattern :

did The Count of Monte Cristo not have an equally spectacular dive?

>95 stumc: It sold out in 9 days (Sept 21st-30th), so it was just a bit faster (but also cheaper).

So the top four order, in speed of sale, seems to be Mort (13h), Monte Cristo (9d), I am Legend (13d), and Candide (3 weeks).
Have I missed one?

>97 wcarter: The Sketchbooks of Van Gogh? Or am I imagining things? It was helped along by the fact that a sizeable part of the limitation was reserved for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

What about The Sound and the Fury?

I revisited the Van Gogh thread and it seems to have taken about 6 weeks to sell 850 copies. The Sound and Fury LE took longer but had a higher limitation - 1480.

Some of the clever mathematicians here can work out fastest rate of selling...

The last of the Van Gogh sketchbooks were given a sale price during the now defunct Christmas sale, and were quickly oversubscribed.

I'm currently going through the LEs backwards chronologically, and Van Gogh sold out within 16 days after it was officially published (01-05), pre-ordering starting a month earlier (03-04). No others have been quicker to sell (apart from those previously mentioned), but that being said, I've only just reached 2013.

The Rubaiyat seems to have been a quick seller as well.

Just So Rudyard Kipling LE. . Only 7 left
Received a FS email

>103 frostymaxim: "Only 7 left"

Now down to 4. Those emails clearly work!

1 left.

And it's gone. These mails are effective. Now what title will be next? Odes of Horace or Lovecraft?

Another one has fallen.

Don't have to worry about it sitting on my wishlist anymore, I suppose. Being perfectly honest I was far more interested in the binding than the contents anyway.

KJB has sold out!

Other LEs:
Door in the Wall 186 (-22)
Duke's Children 16 (-20)
Odes of Horace 11 (-13)
Cthulhu 29 (-42)
Winchester Psalter 54 (-12)

New ticker added: Japan 77

>109 Fierylunar: Thanks !

It does not mean much as not all LE have counters, especially not the new ones who should sell quite well, but :
- Revenue generated in 2018 by tracked LEs = £ 187 475 ( less in fact due to the summer sales discounted prices)
- Most of it comes from IAL, Chtulu, KJB.



My thoughts :
- Angry imaginary beings sell ! All the top three :)
- The LE line is not much larger than a mom-and-pop operation and i'm just grateful it exists.

Roughly one month later:

Door in the Wall 162 (-24)
Duke's Children 5 (-11)
Odes of Horace 11 (=)
Cthulhu 15 (-14)
Winchester Psalter 47 (-7)
Japan 57 (-20)

As of August 10th new tickers were added in the sale:
Troilus and Criseyde 78 (now 75, -3)
Faerie Queene 72 (now 68, -4)
Herefordshire Pomona 78 (now 77, -1)
Tales from the 1001 Nights 96 (still 96)

'Low' stock on the new webpage:
Edda 117
Getty Apocalypse 24
Gulliver's Travels 25
Royal Choirbook 35
Hansel and Grettel 304
Wanderer 183
Kama Sutra 402

Numbers look reasonable enough, but discrepancies between the tickers on old and new website indicate there might be inaccuracies still.

Edit for shameful grammatical error. I'll go to the naughty corner and think about my wrongs.

112: Note, it's not Cthulhu, it's LOVECRAFT, he wrote much more than just Cthulhu, which actually is just one short story :)

However, it looks like this is finally about to sell out, or has it already sold out? I would say this is the most beautiful Lovecraft anthology ever made... although as I have said previously, there are some amazing Lovecraft letterpress editions too.

>113 astropi: Oh I know, but for identifying purposes Cthulhu is a lot easier to type out than The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, cf. not calling Hansel And Gretel the Grimm LE. I'm guessing it sold out, although the counter disappeared both from the old and the new website.

>112 Fierylunar: I don`t see many of the same tickers on the new website, are these verified?

>115 Pellias: They were up for a day or two, then got taken down after FS noticed the error, some quite fast, others even today (Getty still had one last time I checked earlier today). I don't think a title with 300 remaining copies was supposed to have a ticker. It would appear they are fairly accurate, but we're of course unable to ascertain their actual validity.

The Wanderer seems correct, from what FS have told us in newsletters etc. It is quite possible a title like Kama Sutra managed to sell 300-ish copies in the time since it was released, it looks to be popular. Edda could be right as well, seeing that it was released some time ago. I am more hesitant for Gulliver, Getty and Choirbook, because I would expect to see a counter on the old website as well at these numbers, and for Hansel and Gretel, as I would expect a way lower number of copies remaining.

It'll be interesting to see when the tickers get added to the old website or, if they appear a lot later, when the new website gets them again.

>116 Fierylunar: Thank you. Great job by the way. I admit i had mostly Gulliver in my mind, with 25 left it likely would be more relevant

Time for another update as Horace LE sold out:

Sold out:
Cthulhu 0 (-15) (as of late Aug)
Odes of Horace 0 (-11) (as of mid Nov)

Low stock
Duke's Children 3 (-2)
Winchester Psalter 38 (-9)
Japan 38 (-19)
Faerie Queene 26 (-42)

Most surprising change is the number of copies Faerie Queene has sold since then. We might see that one sell out quite soon at this rate, if the ticker is correct.

All other tickers mentioned in >112 Fierylunar: have been removed. It'll be interesting to see when those are added again, or if the low stock items (e.g. Gulliver's Travels at 25) suddenly sell out. If you're interested in any of the lower stock ones, waiting too long might result in disappointment.

Goodness gracious, just come across this: what an interesting thread!

>118 Fierylunar:

Just checking the website and The Duke's Children LE LE is now listed as "Out of Stock".

Is Lolita sold out? I know, technically fine, and not limited. But I can't find it.

>121 Edmund_Fitzgerald: Like a thief in the night.

Update since >118 Fierylunar:, roughly 3,5 months later.

Sold out:
Duke's Children 0 (-3) (as of late December 2018)

Low stock
Winchester Psalter 34 (-4)
Japan 31 (-7)
Faerie Queene 16 (-10)

New tracker
Queen Mary Atlas 20

Slow few months, it would appear. Faerie Queene still on track to selling out next but it might take a while still.

>123 Fierylunar:

Thanks Fiery for keeping the flame alive even if there is markedly less information on the new website (less functionality and ergonomy too ... *ahem*)

----

>123 Fierylunar:
Thank you, very useful.
The Queen Mary Atlas is a magnificent volume and one of my favourite LEs, with acres of leather covering it front and back. But it has been the slowest selling LE ever, having gone on the market originally in 2005. At last it seems to be fading away.

>123 Fierylunar:

Let me add my thanks. These updates are very useful indeed.

>125 wcarter: The Queen Mary Atlas is a magnificent volume ... At last it seems to be fading away.

It faded away once before, if you remember. Then they printed another batch. They pulled the same trick with Hansel and Gretel, too. It's a lovely book which I'd have bought before now if it wasn't so bloody enormous.

The Faerie Queen now down to the last 10 copies.....

...7....

Faerie Queene is now down to 5 copies. i strongly recommend this book, it has pride of place on my shelves, and is my favourite of my admittedly limited number of limited editions.
i was lucky enough to buy it in the sale a couple of years ago, but can certainly attest to it being worth its full price.
anyone on the fence should snap this up before its gone (i reckon in about a week!)

...2....

1

..and then there were none.

Quick update then. Lot of returning trackers and two new ones:

Sold out:
Faerie Queene 0 (-16 as of 22nd March 2019)

Low stock
Winchester Psalter 34 (-0)
Japan 30 (-1)
Queen Mary Atlas 19 (-1)

New tracker:
Magna Carta 9 (-)
Liber Bestiarum 25 (-)

Returning trackers (stats since >112 Fierylunar:)
Royal Choirbook 28 (-7)
Gulliver's Travels 10 (-15)
The Getty Apocalypse 10 (-14)
Troilus and Criseyde 47 (-28)

Edited to add:
Now that a countdown is added, Gulliver could move quickly. The quarterbound vellum series has been hugely popular in the past. As always, if you want a low stock LE: better not to wait till it's too late.

These new countdowns seem to confirm others mentioned in >112 Fierylunar:. A unique insight into the amount of limited editions sold on recent books, it would appear! I'll be looking forward to the date when those trackers return as well, so we have further indication.

Gulliver's Travels is now down to 3 copies

I pulled the trigger on Gulliver's Travels this morning when the counter was on 6. This will be my second LE after The Wanderer last year. I nearly bought Gulliver last summer during the LE sale and thought I had gotten past the temptation, but seeing the counter in single digits just flipped a switch in my brain and I couldn't resist.

Just checked and it's now at 2. Amazing how fast they go once that counter appears!

You will not regret your purchase. Not inexpensive but well worth it. A beautiful edition with captivating illustrations! Congratulations

The counter had disappeared when I went to take a look. I found I could add two copies to my basket but when I tried a third a message popped up with "we don't have as many copies as you are requesting". So still two left, I guess. But why remove the counter?

I came here to ask the same. Nice investigative skills though! Counter's been missing for several hours at this point.

3 other counters (Magna Carta, Royal Choirbook and Getty Apocalypse) have been removed once again. Consider me confused.

UK_History_Fan, thank you. I've only been collecting FS books for a couple of years and I've had my eye on Gulliver's Travels since the Alice In Wonderland LE sold out. I hope they do more in that series, they look absolutely beautiful and I can't wait until mine arrives.

>140 owf_117:
This series has already been completed with six titles, and no more foreseeable..
Go to -
http://www.librarything.com/topic/288021
and scroll down to -
Limited Editions – Large Quarter Leather Bound series

OK, thanks for the link. That's disappointing but I'm happy to get one of them at least.

>137 folio_books: Ok, I just noticed that this method works for every single LE! I spent the better part of half an hour trial & error making shopping baskets at ridiculous prices to find out how many are left according to the site. Results below! The numbers for most appear accurate, but I am hesitant for London & New York. Ordering as per the website, but Letterpress Shakespeare is seperate at the end.

Regular LEs
Gargantua and Pantagruel: 231
London & New York: 195 (! I do not know, but this number seems wrong. This LE is 1 day old and has not been announced through social media/snailmail)
Wilfried Owen: 730
Edward Thomas: 490
Rupert Brooke: 625

Sleeping Beauty: 303
Kama Sutra: 356 (-46 since >112 Fierylunar:)
The Wanderer: 114 (-69 since >112 Fierylunar:)
Love Is Enough: 246 (stating over 500 have been sold on website as well, this number should be right!)
Fine Press Classics (matching numbers): 106

Genesis: 199
The Book of Jonah: 197
The Song of Songs: 124
Winchester Psalter: 34 (cf. counter)
Troilus and Criseyde: 47 (cf. counter)

Riddley Walker: 447
Queen Mary Atlas: 19 (cf. counter)
Pearl Manuscript: 133
Herefordshire Pomona: 65 (-13 since >112 Fierylunar:!)
Ovid's Metamorphoses: 86

Magna Carta: 9 (cf. 133)
Japan: 30 (cf. counter)
Hansel and Grettel: 252 (-52 since >112 Fierylunar:)
Royal Choirbook: 28 (cf. >133 Fierylunar:)
Gulliver's Travels: 2 (cf. >137 folio_books:, might be outdated and already sold out)

Getty Apocalypse: 10 (cf. 133)
Poetic Edda: 88 (-29 since >112 Fierylunar:)
The Door in the Wall: 133 (-29 since >112 Fierylunar:)
1001 Nights: 81 (-15 since >112 Fierylunar:)
The Duke's Children (regular LE): 81

Canterbury Tales: 133
Liber Bestiarum: 3000+ (no max apparently, counter at 22)
Plants of the Americas: 280

Letterpress Shakespeare
The Tempest: 74
Two Gentlemen: 2000+ (no max apparently, counter at 49)
Othello: 79
Merry Wives: 34 (cf. counter)
A Midsummer Night's Dream: 80

Love's Labour's Lost: 20 (cf. counter)
King Lear: 69
Shakespeare: A Comedy of Errors: 33 (cf. counter)
Shakespeare: As You Like It: 17 (cf. counter)

Edited for better ordering (Shakespeare seperate)
Edited to include Japan

>143 Fierylunar:

Thanks Fierylunar! This raises my hopes that the Great War Poets will be on sale again this summer.

I guess that in case of London & New York Folio just added the first print run which they have in stock.

>143 Fierylunar: Ok, I just noticed that this method works for every single LE!

I expected it would but lacked your patience to step through every LE. Well done!

I do agree with you that 195 must be wrong for a title that hasn't officially been announced yet. I suspect it's broadly comparable with The Door in the Wall, which has been available for around three years and still has 133 left (admitting higher limitation)

I also think it possible that Gulliver has actually sold out and the counter is in error, as is the website.

>144 SebRinelli: I guess that in case of London & New York Folio just added the first print run which they have in stock.

Highly possible, given they did the same for Door in the Wall and actually added a counter to the first batch. Some people were conned into ordering it in for FOMO then, lo and behold, the dwindling number suddenly increased by 250. Now that's what I call a dirty trick. I called them out on it, too.

>143 Fierylunar: Thanks a ton for the hard work!

>143 Fierylunar:
Excellent and interesting work, particularly considering the peculiarities and shortcomings of the FS website.

>143 Fierylunar: Just to add to your sterling efforts, Japan is still at 30 according to the ticker, where it's been for quite a while now.

>148 davidjbrown10: Thanks, I updated the post accordingly.

I just checked again, and it would appear the checkout system is linked to the available stock. Where I could add 231 of Gargatua & Pantagruel yesterday, I can only add 230 now. I do not expect FS to do this manually every single day, since it should be easy to automate.

>142 owf_117: Did the happy little elves at Folio take more than two and a half days to ship your Gulliver's Travels? They did for me. I expected an order of Monday morning would put it on my lap this week. "Express" indeed.
C'est la vie.

>150 ProbisPateo: No, mine shipped later the same day fortunately. That's too bad, normally express orders get sent out pretty quick in my experience. Ordered on Monday and received on Friday.

As for the book itself, my expectations were high and they were easily met. What an absolutely gorgeous edition. Hard on the wallet but I don't regret it at all. I only regret missing out on the others now.

Good to hear you're happy with it.

They're usually good with shipping not this time I'll maybe get it Tuesday. For $100 extra that's not cool.

>152 ProbisPateo: They're usually good with shipping not this time I'll maybe get it Tuesday. For $100 extra that's not cool.

I suggest you tell them about it. I'd be surprised if you didn't get the express fee back.

>143 Fierylunar: unfortunately FS are spoilsports and have updated the website; you can now only order a maximum of 10 copies of any LE, thus preventing using this method to check stock!

>154 stumc:
Beware! The FS mole does read all the posts on this forum.

>154 stumc: >155 wcarter: they can fix this but not the actual website eh

>156 gmacaree:

the mole works in mysterious ways

>157 F.Trier:

Either the mole is a double agent, both helping or hindering us on different occasions, or there are two mole factions battling each other and we're caught in the middle.

>154 stumc: it was fun while it lasted! Too bad, I guess. Especially with regards to >156 gmacaree: Many a complaint has been shared here on the new site, which has not led to a single major improvement in functionality or user experience. Yet when there is a mistake to the deficit of FS themselves giving us more information than we're meant to have, it is fixed within a week.

The thing to take away from this, I guess, is that they can fix the site, they just won't.

>159 Fierylunar: The thing to take away from this, I guess, is that they can fix the site, they just won't.

That is certainly how it looks. Mole, you are undone.

the funny thing, knowing folio, is how quickly they made this change! not playing to past form at all!

also gullivers travels is not in the limited stock section, and doesnt have a ticker. but we all know there are only 2 left!

The counter flaw found and exploited here can actually be very detrimental to Folio with respect to competitor intelligence. Those numbers, though limited to Limited Editions by our own folly, still gives significant insight into Folio's business. I've never read one of Folio's financial prospectus filings but I highly doubt that they would print the number of copies made of each specific title or the rate at which they are selling them. It's too sensitive.

That being said, they deserve a little bit of a knock on the head for switching to a less functional website and ignoring our pleas for decency and bug fixes.

Thanks for all the work here. I've had both Edda and Hansel and Grettel on my radar for a while now... Being the only LE's to tempt me since I let Micrographia fly to the wind.

'Financial prospectus filings' are not required for privately owned English companies.

>153 folio_books:

Thank you I expressed my disappointment with the delay and they did just that.

I now see why some of you fine folks buy LEs as soon as they are released - the box had a musty smell as if it had been sitting in a warehouse for many years because it had I suppose :) Book's fine though; I think the solander box helped with that.

>165 ProbisPateo:

I love a happy ending.

>166 folio_books: .. who doesn`t ..

One LE Faerie Queene available

Did they pull another Folio? Gullivers Travels is 'out of stock', but 'Copies will be available from June 2019.'

I saw that and it seems to be a sneaky move. I bought now because they made it seem like it was soon to be out of print. Now it appears that they were merely running out of stock and now more will be printed. This is not a rare practice, but Mosaic Records, for instance makes it clear they're going out of stock with more to come. That "Copies Will Be Available from June 2019" should in my opinion have been posted as soon as the counter appeared and not after they sold remaining copies. My reaction is what they were hoping for. Still happy with the book of course, but do they want their customers to feel resentful?

My number, bought a couple of years ago, was 758. One wonders at what number they got cold feet and decided not to continue binding, and how confident they were that printer and binder would still be around. (GT is that rara avis, an LE made entirely in England.)

>171 Jayked: I bought a few weeks ago when the counter was down to 6 and got #861, although judging by other posts here it seems FS definitely does not ship them out in numerical order so who knows. If it is truly limited to 1000 copies then I'm guessing this will be the final printing.

>170 ProbisPateo: My thoughts exactly. I don't regret my purchase at all but it does seem like a sneaky way to drive up short-term demand. It certainly worked with me!

Query: where on the FS website do you find this information.

>173 Glacierman:

Which information are you looking for?

>174 folio_books: The list of low stock LEs. What I have found has, at the present time, is a page with only 6 titles on it and no indication of how many copies are in stock.

Never mind. I see the quantity counter now. Oy. Some days a fellow shouldn't oughter get out of bed.

Quick update, a month later-ish:

Winchester Psalter 33 (-1)
Troilus and Criseyde 45 (-2)
Queen Mary's Atlas 17 (-2)
Japan 25 (-5)
Liber Bestiarum 20 (-2)
Magna Carta 8 (-1)

Liber Bestiarum and Queen Mary Atlas are the best of that lot. Both gorgeous editions.
The Queen Mary Atlas is bound in acres of maroon leather, and is the tallest FS book ever produced.
Liber Bestiarum is bound in colour embossed dark green leather, and has one of the most beautiful full leather bindings done by the FS.
Both are facsimiles.

>177 wcarter: Liber Bestiarum is bound in colour embossed dark green leather, and has one of the most beautiful full leather bindings done by the FS

Surely, you're joking, Mr Carter!



Over the years, I have been pondering over buying this one many times. But each time it's the cover that turns me down. The binding looks way to modern and flashy for a book like this. It has the looks of a 100 EUR Taschen book to me. Not what I expect of a 500 EUR facsimile.

A facsimile should look like the original as closely as possible.

The FS Liber Bestiarum (like most of the FS facsimiles) is very far from the original :

>178 joco30:
Oops!
I did that from memory. The dark green leather book I was thinking about was Tractatus de Herbis. My error.

Tractatus de Herbis

Latest e-mail points out that I can use 4 easy payments for most (?) LEs, if I only ask. And I thought that was top-secret information. Perhaps their system noticed that I've stopped buying LEs on first publication, and assumed the onset of poverty.

>180 Jayked:

I just got the same email: "Many limited editions can be paid for in four monthly instalments at no extra cost. Telephone our friendly and helpful customer service team on 020 7400 4200 to find out more."

Edited to add: I presume the "most" LEs excludes those under £200.

It is interesting that they are finally publicizing this service instead of keeping it a secret. However, it is still hard to use since you must order through the UK. Last time I used the payment plan it took five calls over three days to order and set it up (I'm in the US). Also, they messed up my online account with the transition to the crappy website and the easiest thing to do was to open a new account with a different email account so now I get twice the mailings. It's easier to just not do business with the Folio Society.

>182 kdweber:
They gave me phone no. 1 866 255 7314, which is presumably international. Won't be calling it.

Can the payment system be applied to a large order of non-LE's? My basket has something like $800 sitting in it, waiting to be dealt with when I have some spare time.

>184 treereader: Yes

>182 kdweber: I had the same experience. After 5 days I gave up. This of course reflects in no way on the efforts of Sally but none the less a giant pain in the butt.

Hm, I never had any problems setting up the 4-installments payment plan calling the US number. It never took more time than it takes to say "and I would like to pay in 4 installments." Last time I did it was before the website "upgrade" though, but it shouldn't matter - they use a different ordering system anyway. "Shouldn't" doesn't mean it "doesn't", of course, as things might very well break down in the integration of all the different systems.

>184 treereader:
Are all titles in your basket from the recent collections? If not, you might as well wait till the start of the Summer sale and see if any of the books get discounted. Then you can call and ask for the 4-installments plan.

>188 elladan0891:

Most, but not all. The KMAG9 discount code would be the argument against waiting for the summer sale, at least for the newer releases in the group.

Update to include the newest tracker: Book of the New Sun:

Book of the New Sun 170 (-2)
Winchester Psalter 32 (-1)
Troilus and Criseyde 41 (-4)
Queen Mary's Atlas 16 (-1)
Japan 24 (-1)
Liber Bestiarum 14 (-6)
Magna Carta 8 (-0)

>190 Fierylunar: Does the (-2) on the Book of the New Sun indicate the number of copies sold whilst you were posting this update? :-)

>191 xrayman: Since the counter was reported here.

>192 Fierylunar: Apologies, my attempt at humour was somewhat disingenuous.

The end of the four and ten instalment plans were the reasons I stopped buying LE but I do understand why they stopped it. Four seems to be back and quite welcomed but yes overall I used to be crazy in buying thousands pounds worth of books every year and now well maybe £20 or £30 on an order. I think the next order will be the James Bond books.

E-mail this morning that Liber Bestiarum was down to 11. Seems to have prompted 2 to take the plunge. Must be a great many copies out there at a better price.

No email for me, perhaps (if you think Folio might in any way be efficient) because I already have it. For lovers of beautiful books this is a definite must-have. You really don't want to have to be sourcing this on the secondary market. It's never going to make it to a sale now, if that's what you were hoping.

I'd have been a sucker for it at the time had I not just received the modest free member's volume, and been further deterred by the Shakespearean limitation. There are currently about 10 on Abebooks alone, several of them around 5 to 600 bucks, and I can't see that changing much. Incidentally the Folio website shows an identical price for USA and Canada. Can't decide whether they're getting stiffed or we're getting a rare bargain. Or perhaps in the year it was published the dollars were at par?

Quick update, 2 LEs sold out in June.

Book of the New Sun 0 (-170) as of June 2nd
Winchester Psalter 32 (-0)
Troilus and Criseyde 41 (-0)
Queen Mary's Atlas 15 (-1)
Japan 23 (-1)
Liber Bestiarum 0 (-14) as of June 20th
Magna Carta 8 (-0)

The Wanderer fewer than 100 (no counter yet)

Interestingly, the 'Last Chance to Buy' site (foliosociety.com/row/miscellaneous/last-chance-to-buy) not linked anymore from the main site has just updated with several titles. Many of the LEs now listed does not have counter yet but quite likely could be close to selling out (e.g. Edda and Pomona) as was hinted in the briefly available counter during launch of the new website.

>199 F.Trier:

Your post made me go check out the LEs listed and there is a curious note about The Book of the New Sun--unlike the other LEs that are no longer available and are listed as "Sold Out," The Book of the New Sun is listed as "Out of Stock." Does that mean there will be another printing soon?

>200 podaniel:

That would be completely out of order, the edition was limited, and progressive updates as I recall were explicit about the proportion of the limitation that had been sold. Having said that, I for one will be surprised if there's much more than a couple of years' delay before a cheaper, unsigned standard (or "Fine") edition comes along.

>200 podaniel: No, I am sure there are both legal and ethical ramifications for selling more copies than there specified in the limitation number when advertised.

If anything an "Out of Stock" listing might (though I suspect very unlikely) imply the original limitation was bound in batches which were sold out before the remaining copies were themselves bound and reached the Folio warehouse. However in such cases someone contacting Folio after it was sold out trying their luck would have been told if that were the case and such news would have likely made it's way to this forum by now.

Or in True Folio fashion, they may have found a bunch lost at the back of their warehouse (which wouldn't be the first time.) and are getting the page ready to sell these off.

>202 wongie: Or in True Folio fashion

Or they've just put the wrong description on the website.

Or, if they're messing around with countdown numbers as reported in another thread, there may indeed be something fishy afoot.

Edited for afterthought.

>202 wongie:
>203 folio_books:

I am reliably informed the problem was caused by (and I quote) someone pressing the wrong button on the internet. We can safely go back to sleep now.

My understanding is that a number of copies returned as 'damaged' are being rebound by the printer. However, whether a title is described as out of stock or Sold Out seems at times to be a matter of whim.

>200 podaniel: Even if there was to be a further L.E. print run, I think it unlikely that Gene Wolfe will be signing them.

>199 F.Trier: There are plenty of LEs in the Last Chance to Buy that one would expect to see still sitting there a year from now, if the glimpse of LE stock (>143 Fierylunar:) has been right. Since the page itself is hard to find, I don't expect the fact of them being included to be a big incentive to buy.

As expected, Gulliver's Travels is now back in stock...

Winchester Psalter 31 (-1)
Troilus and Criseyde 41 (-0)
Queen Mary's Atlas 14 (-1)
Japan 19 (-4)
Magna Carta 8 (-0)

Vague counters:
The Wanderer (fewer than 100)
Gargantua and Pantagruel (fewer than 200)
Love Is Enough (fewer than 250)

Micrographia - Low Stock - 1 left

>208 bookfair_e:

Didn't that already go out of stock? Another one found in an obscure cupboard?

>209 folio_books: Yup, as well as a few history Letterpress Shakespeare's. Guess that shed in the back really is a thing... That, or the hamsters turning the counter wheels have invented book printing.

I ordered The Count of Monte Cristo yesterday.

Today I have an email from Folio informing me of a glitch on their wonderful new website causing non-existent copies of The Count of Monte Cristo to mysteriously appear as ‘in stock’ when it is most definitely ‘Sold Out’, along with an apology for “this embarrassing error”.

Perhaps purchasers of Micrographia and other apparently resurrected LEs will also be disappointed.

>211 bookfair_e:

That's a pity.

Omnishambles.

Post-LE sale:

Metamorphoses 19 (-67 since >143 Fierylunar:)
Herefordshire Pomona 19 (-46 since >143 Fierylunar:)
Winchester Psalter 6 (-25) - not showing up on LE page -
Troilus and Criseyde 0 (-41) (sold out as of August 8th)
Queen Mary's Atlas - who knows, this book disappeared from the site - presumably sold out, counter was at 2 on August 28th
Japan 18 (-1)
Magna Carta 8 (-0)

'Vague counters'
Wanderer "last 100"
Love Is Enough "over 2/3 sold"
Gargantua and Pantagruel "fewer than 200 remain"
Studies From Nature "over 300 sold" = fewer than 200 remain
Tales from the 1001 Nights fewer than 55
Canterbury Tales fewer than 75
The Duke's Children fewer than 63

So yeah, Pomona is close to selling out. I cannot believe I just typed that.

>213 Fierylunar:

Ah, but how many copies were actually bound? Recalling what happened with excess sheets from Temple of Flora, we may yet see Herefordshire Pomona: The Plates Portfolio.

>215 Fierylunar: Good point. All we know is that it sold roughly 60 copies in a year, so chances are that the actual entire limitation would be sold out. 60 in a year is really not bad, considering how other 'older' LEs are performing (it's actually on par with Japan, for example, and outperforming Winchester Psalter).

The Kama Sutra no longer can be found on the website. I assume this means it sold out? If so, I am very fortunate to have bought my copy just a week ago.

>213 Fierylunar: So yeah, Pomona is close to selling out. I cannot believe I just typed that ... 60 in a year is really not bad,

I can picture 55 of those being stripped, as we speak, for the plates :) Or maybe they just issue the plates volume and pulp the other one. Whatever, they still have 19 to sell, one more than Japan. If I was a betting man I'd say Japan is far more likely to sell out and, at its current rate, could well still be here next year for the Last-Ever LE Sale. And as long as they have copies of the Pomona in their warehouse there WILL be another Last-Ever LE Sale, once they've vacuumed the dust and cobwebs off.

Once again, thanks for your labour of love in tracking the Last Remaining Copies. It's seriously interesting and very useful.

3 LEs sold out this week, and we have a new counter:

New-ish:
Tales from the 1001 Nights 46 (-35 since >143 Fierylunar:, -14 since >213 Fierylunar:)

Herefordshire Pomona 3 (-16 since >213 Fierylunar:) - not longer showing up in the LE page
Japan 17 (-1)
Magna Carta 8 (-0)

Getty Apocalypse 0 (-10 since >133 Fierylunar:)
Metamorphoses 0 (-19, sold out as of September 21st)
Winchester Psalter 0 (-6, sold out as of September 25th)
Queen Mary's Atlas - fate still unknown - presumably sold out, counter was at 2 on August 28th

The Pomona, QMA and Kama Sutra are no longer showing up under Limited Editions, and only the first can still be found via the search option. The Kama Sutra still has its link working, QMA has disappeared entirely. New and improved website indeed...

That's odd, I'm still seeing the Pomona on the LE pages, both in normal browsing and when using a private window.

>218 Fierylunar:

They'll sell out 4 or 5 more times yet. Not to worry.

> 219

Yup, it's still there.

You can't kill the pomona: it keeps on haunting you until you accept the truth and give in.

:-)

and the Pomona is gone!!

>222 stumc:

I'll believe it after they've checked down the back of the sofa.

>223 folio_books: if past experience is anything to go by, im sure a few dozen are bound to be found!

>222 stumc: I honestly thought this day would never come. Will the Royal Choirbook be next on the FS list of miracles?

>223 folio_books: ill believe when no more show up 2 years from now. LEs that have sold out have had a knack of showing up for a return every now and again (Micrographia and Alice being notable this year).

>226 Fierylunar:

Absolutely. They did it with the Queen Mary Atlas and (iirc) The Door in the Wall, too.

they also had a second batch of Gullivers Travels LE show up earlier this year!

>225 Sorion: and how long will the last 17 copies of Japan take to sell out?

>229 stumc: If they'd put in the sale I would have taken one off their hands, but not at full price.

>230 folio_books: i picked it up in the sale a couple of years ago, with about 30% off, and at that price i think it is worth it. it is a large well produced book that i often spend an hour or so leafing through

>231 stumc:

I looked at it long and hard at the time but finally concluded 30% wasn't quite enough to tip me over,

>232 folio_books: I reached the same conclusion and would probably need 50% to pull the trigger on it. So it will likely will never cross my threshold.

>232 folio_books:
>233 Sorion:
it is one of my favourite LEs, as it is probably the one i look at most often. i am however a fan of all things Japanese, so it may not have the same appeal for everyone.
if it stays around for the next last ever LE sale i would recommend it at a reduced price, £665 is a bit overpriced i admit.

Japan is very expensive, but it's also gorgeous and I have the impression that it wasn't an easy one to make due to the reproduction of the original hand-coloured photos. Getting access to ones from original editions that are still in good shape wouldn't have been that easy (and maybe not cheap?), and reproducing them also takes some skill. The edition consists of two large books with lots of these (beautiful) photos and slipcases. Again, it is expensive, but compared to some other Limited Editions by FS, I have the impression that by comparison you actually get more for your money.

>233 Sorion:

That's my position exactly. I'll do without rather than pay more than I think it's worth. Valuation is, of course, an entirely individual matter and will vary widely, I've no doubt.

>235 SF-72: i agree, the quality of the reproduced photos is amazing

>235 SF-72:

Agreed. I bought my copy during the sale and very rarely buy FS LE reproductions (as opposed to original FS LE works). I am very happy with this edition.

How long do you reckon Studies from Nature will last? (General question for all)

>239 RATBAG.:

Personal guess, four years or until it winds up in an LE sale, whichever is the shorter period. Fewer than 200 copies left, but I doubt there are many full-price customers either yet to discover that it exists or delaying their purchase until it fits their budget.

LEs seem to be moving faster these days

Dracula 46
Canterbury Tales 29 (-104 since >143 Fierylunar:)
Duke's Children 49 (-32 since >143 Fierylunar:)

Tales from the 1001 Nights 44 (-2 since >218 Fierylunar:)
Japan 11 (-6 since >218 Fierylunar:)
Magna Carta 8 (-0)

>241 Fierylunar:

Thanks again for these very useful updates. We know Dracula is a prime example of the hot cakes phenomenon but some of the others are rather surprising, Canterbury Tales and Duke's Children most noticeably. I imagine some of these have headed to the same dusty corner of the warehouse as the you-know-what that I promised never to mention again.

>242 folio_books: Duke's Children seems reasonable, don't forget that >143 Fierylunar: is almost half a year ago and that Duke's Children was in the sale. That being said, I do agree on Canterbury Tales sales looking steep. The number that surprises me most is Japan, which I would've expected to sell out early 2019 at the latest. Sales on that book have been very slow indeed.

The mole appears to be a selective reader on FSD, Kama Sutra and Queen Mary Atlas have still not reappeared. I believe it's safe to say the latter has sold out by now, but the first baffles me. Any thoughts? Does the presence of that book detract from the Folio brand too much?

>243 Fierylunar: Does the presence of that book detract from the Folio brand too much?

That made me laugh. I can think of a few books they sell which detract from the brand and Kama Sutra isn't one of them, certainly not their sedated edition, anyway. Nope, I'm pretty sure what you're observing is mere inefficiency. They'll get around to restoring it sooner or later. Sales of Japan are slow mainly because the book is overpriced. If they'd included it in this year's LE sale it would have gone by now, as I pointed when they refused to include it. I'd like it very much, but my price ceiling is firmly stuck at £350 for this one. If that isn't enough to secure it I'm content to do without. I do hope you're paying attention, Double-O-Mole.

I got what I think was the last Timon of Athens. It basically never appears on the secondary market, so I bit the bullet at full price.

>242 folio_books: "have headed to the same dusty corner of the warehouse as the you-know-what that I promised never to mention again." The 'contraption' ?

>246 HuxleyTheCat: A book featuring some fruits of the Eve-seducing variaty.

Edited to add: >244 folio_books: 'inefficiency' or 'incompetence'? The oversight that allowed insight into Dracula's stock was fixed within a day of reporting on FSD. The oversight that leaves out an entire Limited Edition sold at nearly 400 GBP is not fixed after a month.

>247 Fierylunar: And there's me thinking that the scrumpy book had finally sold out (or at least the bound copies), the contraption on the other hand...

>249 folio_books: And there's me thinking that the scrumpy book had finally sold out

They claim it has, Fiona, but if you were to look in the dustiest corner of their warehouse, under the cobwebs, there'll you'll find a minimum 50 unloved, unsold copies of the thing.

>249 folio_books: I believe they offloaded the last copies by marketing it to cockneys as a book about stairs.

That made me laugh out loud! Cheers for that

>244 folio_books: "Sales of Japan are slow mainly because the book is overpriced. If they'd included it in this year's LE sale it would have gone by now, as I pointed when they refused to include it. I'd like it very much, but my price ceiling is firmly stuck at £350 for this one."

I paid £465 (i.e., £200 off) for mine in the First-Ever-LE-Sale last year, which I didn't think was too bad. Of course, I'd be the very last to try to enable you. You know me better than that. So I'll tone it down as much as I can, happy in the knowledge that the uncontrollable passion boredom in my voice will pass you by completely, when I say (with a modicum of salivation) that the two huge both volumes are beyond magnificent - (slurp) quite nice - even before you've looked inside. Heavily Embossed, fancy golden lettering on the solid, high-quality bevell-edged slipcases, the one contrasting jet-black against the gorgeous red buckram of the boards of volume one, lightly embossed as it is in white, red and gold; volume two a resplendent black with complementary embossing and gently sliding from a refulgent red slipcase not a whit less bevelled than volume one similar to volume one. Don't get me wrong - I'm speaking personally here and others might well react more passionately. What I can say with certainty, though, is that when I first beheld opened the book, I was almost blinded by the piercing gleam of bright gold emanating from the edges of the thick, creamy paper of the heavy text block. Imagine my orgasmic delight when I was pleased to note that there was not a hint of print-through, as I devoured like a crazed being carelessly leafed through the pretty coloured illustrations of old Japan which, incidentally, took me back to when I was a little maid from school in my all-boys' third form production of the Mikado in 1965.

>252 boldface:
Another Boldface classic!
As a fellow owner of these volumes, I completely agree with your deleted comments.

>252 boldface:
>253 wcarter:

Much as I value your opinions - truly - I remain obdurate and unmoved on this one. It was the beauty and craftsmanship that first led me to add it to my "most wanted" list but, being honest, its biggest drawback for me is the sheer size of the thing which is going to pose problems. My shelf for really big Folios is essentially full (bear in mind there are some I physically can't accommodate, no matter how alluring) so it's about what would make way for Japan. I'm only prepared to give myself that dilemma if I can secure Japan at "my" price.

Good effort, guys. Sorry you didn't manage to enable me. You've done a good job i promoting the remaining copies, though.

>254 folio_books: unlike the Pomona, i think Japan is one you will regret missing out on.
this is a book i go back to on a regular basis, and am always enchanted by.
i think if i had to give up all my LEs, this would probably be the last to go (i even prefer it to the Faerie Queene!!)
i appreciate your point on it being overpriced (it probably is, i picked it up in the sale), but i cant see FS doing anything like it in the future. With the success of Dracula, BOTNS etc i can see where their business model lies.
im sure you can make space for it somewhere; dont miss out!

>255 stumc:

Another passionate plea, which I appreciate. I agree with you on Folio's future business model, too, sad though that is. And yes, they'll never do anything like it again (is there anything like it?) Size is my main objection but where there's a will etc and I do have a plan for when it eventually falls into my hands. Price remains the insuperable obstacle. Copies will eventually trickle through to the secondary market and if I exercise some patience I'll eventually get one at "my" price, though that will most likely take a few years, if I last that long. I blame Folio. I'm still extremely annoyed that they didn't put it in the last sale.

>252 boldface:
>255 stumc:

You've done a good job promoting 'Japan' as they are now all gone.

Or it could be the success in the RWC in Japan? 😉

I hope you're wrong about these types of limited editions being available in the future, but I suspect you're right.

Even if nnliche books sell out eventually there are storage overheads and extra costs for the drawn out bonding process (especially for large volimes). A book which sells straight away like Dracula would be most profitable.

I wonder if FS regret not making 1,000 or even 1,250 of those, as in hindsight they probably would have sold. The design cost is fixed so it makes sense to shift as many copies as possible.

The Folio Society would never release an esoteric Limited Edition featuring art from Japan in 2019. It would go against their new business model, after all.

>261 Fierylunar: This is snark theft and you shall be hearing from my lawyers :)

>260 gmacaree:

If you're saying there's anything other than a superficial link between Japan and Studies from Nature I'm afraid I'd have to disagree. They share "Japan" and that's about all. The former I have always been attracted to and would have acquired a long time ago if it wasn't for the price. The new one? Nah, not for a quarter of the price, I'm afraid.

>263 folio_books: I am suggesting that, despite the stressing out over their business model, Folio is still happily releasing -- and lavishing attention upon -- limited editions with no obvious mass audience.

>263 folio_books:
>264 gmacaree:
whilst i love the look of the Studies from Nature book, and will hopefully own it one day, i do think that is a totally different proposition to the Japan LE.
one is a delicate reproduction of ukiyo e artwork, and the other is a large 19th century photograph and travel book.
my thoughts were, depending on how quickly Studies from Nature sells out, why would FS not proceed with more horror and sci fi LEs when these are the ones which sell out in double quick time?

>262 gmacaree: Sorry, I missed the fact that that was a link. My bad!

>263 folio_books: If anything, Studies from Nature seems even more esoteric than Japan did.

>267 HarpsichordKnight:

Esoteric: intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.

Yep, that sounds about right.

>265 stumc:
>267 HarpsichordKnight:

The importance of 'Japan' far exceeds 'Studies from Nature' and it is much more than a 'large 19th century photograph and travel book." It is a book of considerable historical significance and was an important part of Japan's move to transform itself from a closed feudal society into a modern twentieth century country. 'Japan' was a highly coordinated national effort to present its best face to the United States and Western Europe and join the other advanced industrial countries as well as inviting their commerce and investment. Perhaps more important from a book collector's point of view, 'Japan' was one of a handful of books in the 19th century that set new standards in reproduction of illustrations regarding accuracy and fidelity. Other books that helped to set this new standard were:

1. The Holy Land: Syria, Idumea Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia by David Roberts.

2. The Owens Jones books: the Alhambra, the Ornament of Grammar, etc.

3. In Fairlyand, a Series of Pictures from the Elf World by Richard Doyle.

>269 dlphcoracl: What is particularly interesting to me about Japan is the seeds the authors are sowing to justify Japanese imperialism. Even the strange chapters about the origins of Genghis Khan seem like a fairly hamfisted attempt to suggest historical evidence for Japanese intervention in mainland Asia. Reading what is essentially pre-colonial propaganda, especially since what followed had a direct impact on the Malaysian half of my family, was quite a trip.

Also it's very pretty and fascinating in its own right.

>269 dlphcoracl: i am certainly not running down Japan; as previously mentioned it is possibly my favourite LE.
I was simply highlighting that the Studies from Nature presentation is very different from the Japan book, both in content and design.

i really hope that FS continue with their less well known publications, as i have been introduced to some truly unique and interesting works.

>271 stumc:

We are on the same wavelength with regard to 'Japan' and I was certainly not suggesting that you had a negative or equivocal opinion. My point was that it could (and should) be considered a landmark publication purely from a book collector's viewpoint because it broke new ground regarding illustration in fine and private press books. Of course, it is much more than that.

The Wanderer now - 63 left

>273 kb-42: so do i go for The Wanderer before it sells out, Doctor Zhivago which looks fantastic, or a second hand copy of Travels in Arabia Deserta?

>274 stumc: Well all three obviously!

>274 stumc::

Easy choice - the FS LE of Travels in Arabia Deserta is one of the FS's finest efforts.

>276 dlphcoracl:

Agreed--not a close call.

There is a 35% discount on Brooke, Thomas and Owen at the website, quite surprising

>278 kb-42: An encouragement to complete the War Poets with Owen, which is on Sale for the first time. 11/11 is the day of the armistice, FS has obviously seized the moment.

>278 kb-42: Wow what a deal. If you don’t have these yet you owe it to yourself to pick them up now at that price. They truly are gems.

Folio's best LE since Arabia Deserta, available for ridiculously cheap. How does anyone here need more enablement?

Tried seeing what international shipping for one of these LE's would be, but got this error:

"Shipping is prevented by a user defined rule. The merchant has used Carrier Rule to prevent shipping." Possibly you can't order Limited Editions to China? Anyone heard of this?

>281 gmacaree: Which of the three are you referring to? And if you want to enable some enablement, do state your reasons :)

Great news about the war poets sale. I’ve been eyeing these for quite a while, and used this surprise to pick up all three.

>282 HarpsichordKnight:

I can put them in my basket and go to checkout in Germany / ROW, but 35 Pounds shipping for each are plain and simply too much. It was the same when the first two were discounted during a sale. 105 Pounds for three books just for shipping? No thank you.

>282 HarpsichordKnight: I meant to pluralise! I love all of them, but if I had to rank them, it's Owen and Thomas at the very highest level with the Brooke a little lower.

They're letterpress and elegantly-designed copies of really important work. I particularly love their size. Folio has a habit of making their LEs enormous, but these are little volumes that easily fit on the shelf. It's tasteful, modest, craftsmanship, and therefore Folio at their recent best.

>278 kb-42: Thanks for pointing out.
Ordered the Owen to put it next to my Thomas. Brooke's illustrations appear to me as far to garish for considering a purchase. What a pity! I wish they had chosen another illustrator.
Still miss a Sassoon!

>286 SebRinelli: They really aren’t too garish in person. I think that you will end up regretting not completing the set in the long run. The Brooke is third for me after Thomas and then Owen but it really is an excellent volume and a worthy addition to your library.

>278 kb-42:
Once again thank god for the vigilant monitoring of the FS website by this group. I never otherwise would have known about this discount so I could complete the war poets LE series with Owen, which I refused to pay full price for. Even when I went to the website (on my iPhone) there was no indication of the discount (usually there is a full price crossed off, a sale price, and a % reduction listed). I had to refer to a wish list spreadsheet to verify it was on sale. But now that I have, duly ordered.

This has been a very expensive Folio fall with Dracula, Doctor Zhivago, and now Owen.

>284 SF-72: Still wasn't able to get it to work for shipping to China; the site suggested it would also cost 35 pounds, but then the shipping cost is marked as 'undefined'. Possibly a bug at their end, might try again tomorrow or otherwise email them.

35 pounds does seem a lot for shipping, but I guess it's still cheaper than undiscounted?

>285 gmacaree: Thanks for the further comments. Really large editions for anything without maps or incredible paintings have never really appealed to me, so it's great to hear it's tasteful and modest. I have my eye on the Thomas.

I ordered the Owen to complete the three. After receiving the Montaigne and Phantom just yesterday and Doctor Zhivago last week, I fear the effects of the New Year Sale.

>289 HarpsichordKnight:

Sure, it is cheaper than the full price + 35 Pounds shipping. But I really don't see why shipping should be this excessive for a relatively small book being shipped to Europe. I've had much larger and heavier limited editions shipped from FS for the same fee. I also think that in this case, it would be smart to allow combined shipping instead of moving it to an eye-watering 105 Pounds for three smaller books. It is possible for the Fine Press Classics - three books for 45 Pounds shipping.

As for your problem: I'm sure you're right that this is some glitch. It might be possible to order the books by phone if the email option shouldn't work out or take too long.

just placed my order for the three, hopefully The Wanderer sells at one a day (or less) so i can get that in the New Year!
at £125 each these letterpress editions look like a good bargain.

>291 SF-72: Fair point well made - I didn't realise that was the same price for shipping larger editions, or that they don't offer any bundling options when you order all three.

I suspect that if you phone them, they will bundle the postage costs. I have had this done for me in the past.

>278 kb-42:

Thank you for this! Just completed my collection by ordering the Owen.

>291 SF-72: The trouble might be that the LEs are already packaged before they are ordered and it is therefore harder to bundle them together? I've only ever ordered 4 LEs, but all came in their own box including limitation number on several sides of the box, a possible indication that the book is immediately boxed after production. It would be curious if those were added during packaging, putting a strain on the entire process (opening the book - checking the number - rewrapping the book - putting it back in its slipcase/solander box - printing number labels).

>296 Fierylunar:
they can repackage as I had ordered 3 limited editions at the same time and they packed the three individual boxes into 1 enormous box. I still had to pay for all three individually though, which meant 120 pounds for the one shipment to The Netherlands, which really seems like way too much

>297 afje96: wow, that is an actual rip off. When you buy 20+ regular editions, all get sent (though not through express) in several very heavy boxes (these 3 war poets should be a lot lighter) for 19 GBP total...

LEs come in their own custom cartons, typically including polystyrene or cardboard inserts to protect the books. And they are, at least in the UK, delivered via a courier service rather than via Royal Mail.

I imagine all that adds to the costs involved.

There was a special deal for the three Biblical books if you ordered them as a set.

There was probably something similar with Letterpress Shakespeare if you ordered the batches of four as they came out rather than individual volumes but I haven't got the details to hand.

:-)

I've got all three sitting in my cart, but I am hesitating on completing the sale - mainly because of the shipping costs...am I fool to pass this sale by?

I’m having the same issue. I picked up the Rupert Brooke secondhand from a fellow LT’er, and I’m definitely going to get the Owen, because I’ve been waiting for that that go on sale, but I’m torn on the Thomas. I’m unfamiliar with his poetry (apart from the excerpts in Chris’s excellent Books and Vines post on these books), so I’m not dying to have it. Do I complete the set for completeness sake? If I didn’t have to pay the shipping twice, I’d be far more likely to take a flier on it, but something about $70 to ship two relatively small books, when I can order twenty books and pay $28 shipping, rubs me the wrong way. It’s not like I’m going to get next day service for my trouble either - just regular old shipping with a signature requirement, marked up like crazy.

>300 vmb443: Not a fool but you will regret it.

>301 jsg1976: Speaking for myself the Thomas is my favorite of the set. I enjoy his work the best and his backstory is really interesting as well. Particularly the stuff with Robert Frost.

Bite the bullet guys comparatively it’s quibbling over small amounts next to the whole.

/end enabling

They'll be back in a sale, these LEs don't sell well. /end disalbing

>300 vmb443:

Only you can say. I bought the first two books on their release, and still I'm hesitating over the third. They are so very well executed and have their charms and beauties, but war poetry isn't a specific passion of mine and I'm not at all sure how much I would care if I had to turn to the recent Oxford Poetry of the First World War to read it: nor am I ever significantly bothered by owning an incomplete "set" of anything. If I buy the Wilfred Owen volume I'll have to dislodge the Medici Society Thomas Gray from its place on the shelf beside the other two. It's printed letterpress on excellent paper in a font I love, bound in full vellum, and cost me barely a tenth as much but would be a greater loss to me if it went. Then, the Wilfred Owen wouldn't oblige it to move very far. Bah, I don't know.

>303 Fierylunar: I agree they'll be back in a future sale as this isn't the first time they've been reduced to 125gbp. They're also quite a high limitation at so everything seems to point to them surviving until at least another sale.

>302 Sorion: Speaking for myself the Thomas is my favorite of the set.

Very happy to endorse that. No-one has mentioned the illustrations. David Gentleman's for the Thomas are beyond exquisite, easily the best of the three volumes. I'd tend to agree, though, that the likelihood of them surviving to a next year's LE sale must be quite high.

>306 folio_books: i agree, that with such a high limitation number they will probably be around for the (definitely, definitely) last ever LE sale, but i dont see them being reduced anymore than the current discount.

i have so far only received 2 of the 3, but they are truly high quality books, and considering i last read the war poets in school, they will be a nice discovery im sure.

>307 stumc: the last ever LE sale will be when the fine press classics (non matching numbers) sell out. In April this year, as little as 25-35% of its limitation was sold.

>308 Fierylunar: I think i can resist their charms.
harder to resist is the reduced Travels in Arabia Deserta, currently further reduced on ebay!
but ive more than blown my budget, even before i bought the war poets LEs!

Alright - after much humming and hawing and increasingly spirited attempts to argue myself out of and into it, I've finally pulled the trigger and ordered the Edward Thomas.

When it arrives, it will be by a large margin the highest quality book I've ever owned, and possibly, ever seen. Time to join you all in the world of LE's, letterpress, and leather. It sounds like quite a fine place to be.

Was partly influenced by this excellent and moving article:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/29/robert-frost-edward-thomas-poetry

After pondering for a few days and reading your posts I have purchased all three - the prices are such that if I change my mind about them in the future I can resell without losing too much money and the more I look at them, the more I want them - usually illustrations are only about a quarter of the value of a book to me, but these are all stunning - I also have an interest in the Great War from an historical standpoint and am fascinated by the lives of the soldiers and what they endured and lived through and so this hits a number of different interests of mine in addition to the poetry itself, so thanks for all your thoughts - I suspect this will be one of those purchases which I hesitate on and then, once the books are in hand, I have no second thoughts or regrets.

All three arrived this morning, and on first inspection, I’m glad I bought them. I wasn’t expecting how small they are, especially when compared to other LEs I own, but am impressed with their overall quality. I’m currently reading the copy of In Parenthesis that I picked up in the summer sale, and I’ll probably continue the theme by launching into the war poets once I finish.

I bought the Brooke when it was first issued and had intended to buy all four of the proposed war poets series. However, when FS dropped the Rosenberg-a decision I still don't understand- I lost interest. I'm more than happy with my Folio fine press editions of Thomas and Owen.

>312 mnmcdwl: Mine arrived today and, like you, am very happy that I ended up buying them - I was prepared for the smaller size which is actually quite nice I think, but they are lovely books - when I first opened the Owen I said, “oh wow” quite naturally - I am delighted to have them in my library.

My interest in the Great War Poets got rekindled by these discounts, but in the end I decided it was too much money for me personally. Worth the price, no doubt about it, but not for me. Instead I picked up a unread, perfect copy of Anthem For Doomed Youth by Lyn MacDonald for the princely sum of €15 (£12.85). Together with In Parenthesis I have everything I need. I’m happy to see there are only satisfied buyers here, the three books remain wonderful!

Japan LE has sold out according to the website.

Another month, another update. Latest stock updates (Dracula and Doctor Zhivago) are now in ALL CAPS, the pinnacle of internet decency. The Wanderer now has a counter as well, and could well be next to sell out.

The Wanderer 54 (new)
Canterbury Tales 24 (-5 since >241 Fierylunar:)
Duke's Children 46 (-3 since >241 Fierylunar:)
Tales from the 1001 Nights 37 (-7 since >241 Fierylunar:)
Magna Carta 8 (-0)

Dracula 0 (-46), sold out as of October 24th
Japan 0 (-11), sold out as of November 22nd

The Kama Sutra is still hiding in the corner of shame...

The Wanderer - 27 remain.

>318 bookfair_e:. Down to 23. I think your post must have triggered a few purchases. I would advise anyone still on the fence to snap this up while you still can. Folio at the top of their game, with superb work from Alan Lee (his border illustrations are some of the best I've seen).

Btw the Kama Sutra seems to have reappeared.

>319 Levin40:

That might have helped--but I also received an email from FS last week about ordering The Wanderer due to the low stock count and was subsequently enabled.

The wanderer is now down to 14.

My only problem with the Wanderer, is the quality of the paper. For the size of the book, this is one of the lightest books I own. The paper is thick, but not very dense.

The counter for The Wanderer now reads: Low Stock: 11 left

Now it's down to six--I wonder if this is the day it sells out.

*fights off FOMO* Come on Wanderer sell out!

just ordered The Wanderer, just couldnt miss out on it.
should look good next to Beowulf.

I just received my The Wanderer today--number 722.

Just one copy of The Wanderer left.

SOLD OUT

Limited editions low stock email from Folio:

The Song of Songs:

Although still available in the set of three Fine Press Classics (with Genesis and The Book of Jonah), from the total limitation of 750 only 16* copies remain of The Song of Songs as a single volume.

The Canterbury Tales: Last 8 copies

>331 bookfair_e: Wow, what have they done with the other 100+? Mash them into a pulp along with some apple-related pages? It is currently at 9 remaining and will sell out soon.

In other news:

Studies from Nature 96 (new)
Canterbury Tales 5 (-19 since >317 Fierylunar:)
Duke's Children 43 (-3 since >317 Fierylunar:)
Tales from the 1001 Nights 25 (-12 since >317 Fierylunar:)
Magna Carta 5 (-3) (now listed twice)

The Wanderer 0 (-54), sold out as of December 20th

'Vague' counters
Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty >500 sold
Hansel and Gretel -100 remain
Love is Enough -150 coipes {sic} remain (all caps is bad enough, can we please at least spell things right, people?!)
The Door in the Wall -100 remain
Gargantua and Pantagruel -200 remain
Ridley Walker -200 remain

Also, the Kama Sutra is now back online after as little as 6 months. Quick fix, by Folio standards.

>331 bookfair_e: The Canterbury Tales:

Last one ...

Studies from Nature 66 (-30)
Duke's Children 17 (-26)
Tales from the 1001 Nights 23 (-2)
Magna Carta 1 (-4)

Song of Songs 0 (-9), sold out as of mid February
Canterbury Tales 0 (-5), sold out as of February 14th

New 'vague' counters
Pilgrim's Progress over 450 sold
Kama Sutra over 550 sold
Doctor Zhivago over 600 sold

Thank you. Always interesting to know. I'm watching Zhivago carefully.

Tales from 1001 Nights is standing now at only 7 left. Seems to sell well these days. I thought of buying this one maybe with the next LE sale, but I fear it will be sold out by then ...
For the Magna Carta on the other hand the counter has gone.

does anyone have an idea of how many copies of Door in the Wall remain? its had a "less than 100 copies remain" note for a long time now

The Folio Society of old would have stated 'Fewer than 100 copies remain', but that was before Jack Reacher became Commissioning Director ...

>338 Steventon: to be fair to them it does say fewer than 100, I'm just wondering how much have been sold in the past few weeks? must be one every other day or so, so I would expect more like 60 copies remain, similar to Studies from Nature

>339 stumc: I'm just wondering how much have been sold in the past few weeks? must be one every other day or so

I doubt that, considering it was already in 2017 part of the LE sale. Why buy it now at full price if chances are high it might be had for less in a couple of months?
"Fewer than 100" is still plenty enough to wait a little while, while keeping an eye on it, I would think. Putting Limited Editions on sale wasn't the most clever thing they ever did if you ask me.

>340 joco30: I hope it lasts a bit longer, as I'm keeping my eye on it, as well as Studies from Nature, and a couple of low stock regular editions, and the summer sale is just around the corner.
I dont think door in the wall will be in the LE summer sale this year though

I just paid full price for the Door in the Wall as I want to support titles I truly appreciate and see the value there. For me the 80 dollars I paid extra was well worth it. However, I am not willing at this point to pay full price for Riddley Walker as the sale was 235 dollars and that's way too much for me to overlook. So I do plan on getting Riddley, and it was easy for me to get one now and one in the sale.

>336 joco30: the email might have helped with that, it was at 18 3 days ago when they sent a low stock warning.

>337 stumc: Little indication on where it might be, but it has been a slow seller. It had a counter before for more than a year, but that was for a print run, not the entire limitation.

I could've sworn that The Door in the Wall sold out a few months after the 2017 LE sale but that it was just the first printing because it came back several months later. The second batch is now what's running low. How many print runs make up the entire limitation? If this is the last one and it's selling steadily, I can't imagine that they'd put it on sale.

>344 treereader:

I believe RATBAG received 899 a while ago, I'll let you know what number I get next shortly, but I assume it's at last batch.

>343 Fierylunar: the email might have helped with that, it was at 18 3 days ago when they sent a low stock warning.

Ah, I never got that mail. Did they also sent an email for The 1001 Nights?

>346 joco30: it was actually an email for the 1001 Nights only:

Only 18* copies of our sumptuous limited edition, presenting 50 illustrations by Salvador Dalí for Tales from the One Thousand and One Nights, are available.

Dalí’s beguiling watercolours, each protected with a translucent overlay, are collected in an elegant large-format volume. The tales, in the acclaimed translation by Malcolm C. Lyons, have been printed separately in a smaller format convenient for reading.

If you would like to add this opulent limited edition to your library, please place your order now. Only 750 copies have been made, each numbered by hand, and just 18* remain.

*Correct at time of sending

The mail also included several pictures for the LE and some of Dalí’s art.

Now I see why it has been selling so well the last couple of days. Strange that these mails are not sent to all of their customers.

>345 Cubby.R.S.:

Thanks. I actually ordered my copy during the 2017 LE sale, not realizing that it was only a first printing or that it would come back later. Given the rise in shipping and taxes since then, I'm glad I bought it when I did. It will be helpful to others who are on the fence still, to know if the current batch is the last of them.

>348 joco30: I believe it is in part determined by your purchase history. I didn't get LE emails until I bought my first one. Anyway, the trend is that an LE sells out within a week of the low stock warning email, and 1001 seems to be no exception. Currently at 6 remaining, -12 since the email.

1001 nights is a magnificent volume, and well while purchasing. One of my favourite LEs.

>350 Fierylunar: I believe it is in part determined by your purchase history.

That can't be the case, since I've bought several LE's every year for some years now. The last one I bought was a letterspress Shakespeare only a few weeks ago .




The Letterpress Shakespeares all have counters now:

13 left - The Comedy of Errors
16 left - Merry Wives of Windsor
20 left - King Lear
29 left - The Tempest
43 left - A Midsummer Night's Dream
61 left - Othello

Love's Labour's Lost - Sold Out

I desperately want the Tales from the One Thousand and One Nights, as Dali's paintings for it are just perfect, but I totally can't justify it until I actually own property or at least feel slightly financially safer in life - especially nowadays.

One for Ebay in 5-10 years!

>353 HarpsichordKnight:

When you do eventually find your property, take extra care to ensure the bookshelves you buy/build are capable of accommodating LEs of this size, because even my most capacious are not :(

It means I miss out on several I would buy, including the 1001 Nights, The Holy Land/Egypt and Nubia and the Queen Mary Atlas. Fortunately, the tallest and deepest shelves will take Poems of Thomas Grey and Night Thoughts and the slightly smaller Johnson's Dictionary. Being deprived of Folio LEs I lust over has bugged me for some time. Shelving sideways is not an option as far as I'm concerned so I have to live with it.

>352 joco30: Folio IT is as much a mystery as what came before the big bang. You'd think they would want to make sure the newsletter reached as many people as possible, but it seems that the distribution lists for them are still left wanting.

As for the Letterpress Shakespeare, it'll be interesting to see how long it takes for them to sell out. Comedy of Errors has sold 7 since the end of August last year, as did the Merry Wives of Windsor.

Oh, btw: >336 joco30: There has not been a counter for Magna Carta for over a year. However, as the stock is below 10, you can try adding them all to a basket. The FS site will show an error if there are fewer copies available than the amount you requested. Currently, there is only 1 copy remaining.

Door in the Wall number 916 arrived today ahead of schedule. Pretty cool book and I say really good value. Anyone on the fence, you have 80 ish left. No huge rush, but I would consider buying it during the LE sale whether or not it's included at discount.

>356 Cubby.R.S.:

I told you 'The Door in the Wall' is, or should be, a no-brainer. :-) Congratulations on an outstanding purchase and an outstanding value, especially when compared to other lesser FS Limited Editions.

>357 dlphcoracl:

You weren't wrong.

The 'lesser', if you will, LEs are among my favorite reading experiences. I feel very happy handling them and they align better with my content desires. That is the whole purpose of their design after all. I decided for and against The Door in the Wall too many times to ignore this group's opinion, and not a bit of regret resides here.

Moving to the next target.

Whatever pops into the LE sale, I guess. I've been tempted to get at least one of the letterpress Shakespeare, have also considered Riddley Walker, the Rackham set, and Gargantua and Pantagruel has started poking me, but... I told myself no more than $250 for a book 5 years ago, then I thought $500 would be the new unreasonable number to surpass... Damn Folio.

>358 Cubby.R.S.:

If FS offers Riddley Walker at 50% off again that is also a no-brainer. A seminal and quite unique sci-fi/fantasy novel with a strange poetical language akin to Anthony Burgess' 'A Clockwork Orange' and a beautifully designed Limited Edition. Do not pass on it a 2nd time :-).

It brings me joy seeing the enthusiasm for Riddley Walker and The Door in the Wall.

They really ARE no brainers! :)

>345 Cubby.R.S.: Do they ship them randomly or from first to last? I've always thought the LEs are sent out randomly with no specific order to them.

>360 RATBAG.:

I think the latest has been to do runs of a certain number and then have more bound, which has led to some confusion about some LEs selling out and later being back in print. That also means they probably number a certain amount at a time? Based on you getting 899 and me three months later getting 916, I think this one may be in order.

>361 Cubby.R.S.: Makes sense! Good observation.

>360 RATBAG.: These last few years they did start sending out copy number 2 most of the time. Several FSDs have managed to grab the first (or one of the first 10) number quite reliably. Earlier, it was completely random. I seem to recall Glen being quite aggrieved after receiving a copy in the 700s even though he ordered on release.

Back to my (sort of) regularly scheduled LE update:

Studies from Nature 54 (-12)
Duke's Children 11 (-6)
Tales from the 1001 Nights 2 (-21)
Magna Carta 1 (=)

New & Updated 'vague' counters:
The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman Over 300 sold
Fine Press Classics (matching numbers) Fewer than 100 left
Riddley Walker Fewer than 150 remain (-50 since >332 Fierylunar:)

>361 Cubby.R.S.: Yes, I frantically purchased the Gulliver's Travels LE a little over a year ago when it was suddenly about to sell out, then a couple of months later it was back in stock again.

>363 Fierylunar: These last few years they did start sending out copy number 2 most of the time. Several FSDs have managed to grab the first (or one of the first 10) number quite reliably. Earlier, it was completely random. I seem to recall Glen being quite aggrieved after receiving a copy in the 700s even though he ordered on release.

Yes, that was The Wanderer, I think. It prompted me to email the Managing Director complaining about the iniquity of the non-existent system and suggesting simple means by which it could be corrected, no rocket science involved. Since then the system seems to be working well. Essentially, if you're quick off the mark when a new LE is released you'll get a low limitation number. If you're very quick you'll get a very low (single digit) one, which is the way it should always have been. As ever, number 1 is reserved for the Gavron family, quite rightly so.

>364 owf_117: I frantically purchased the Gulliver's Travels LE a little over a year ago when it was suddenly about to sell out, then a couple of months later it was back in stock again.

That is one of the most annoying things they do. That trap caught me once (I forget which title) but they've done it with The Queen Mary Atlas (at least twice), Liber Bestiarum and The Door in the Wall. Probably others I don't know about. Very dubious marketing ethics, imo.

Edited for afterthought.

I see from the FS website today that Riddley Walker has fewer than 150 copies left to sell from its Limitation of 1,000 copies.

>367 Steventon: This was the case as of at least a week ago (>363 Fierylunar:).

Tales from the 1001 Nights has now sold out! What edition will be next? Studies from Nature or Duke's Children appear to be the most likely candidates, though it only takes 1 for Magna Carta.

I got this in the mail:

“There are now fewer than 100 copies of Doctor Zhivago, in the exclusive new translation by Nicolas Pasternak Slater first published just eight months ago.”

“Tales from the One Thousand and One Nights, illustrated by Dalí, and Trollope’s The Duke’s Children have just sold out.
Stocks of eight limited editions, including Utamaro’s Studies from Nature, published less than a year ago, and the Pearl Manuscript, are below 50 copies. And a further five titles have fewer than 100 copies so we do not expect Kay Nielsen’s masterpiece Hansel and Gretel, or H. G. Wells's brilliant The Door in the Wall, to be in print for very much longer.”

For those interested and/or on the fence on these above mentioned titles.

Quick update for the selling out of Duke's Children and more info on other LEs:

The Duke's Children 0 (-11), sold out as of June 4th 2020
Tales of 1001 Nights 0 (-2), sold out as of May 25th 2020
Magna Carta disappeared, presumed sold out as of early June 2020

Studies from Nature 47 (-7)
(new) Hansel and Gretel 67
(new) The Door in the Wall 62
(new) The Pearl Manuscript 46

Vague remaining stock (low-high):
Doctor Zhivago: fewer than 100
Fine Press Classics: fewer than 100
Love is Enough: fewer than 150
Riddley Walker: fewer than 150
Kama Sutra: fewer than 200
Gargantua and Pantagruel: fewer than 200
The Pilgrim's Progress: fewer than 250
Cinderella & The Sleeping Beauty: fewer than 250
The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman: fewer than 450

There are quite a few recent titles in the low stock LE list now. Looks like Folio has produced quite a few hits as of late:

2020 The Pilgrim's Progress (500+ sold)
2019 Doctor Zhivago (650+ sold), Gargantua and Pantagruel (300+ sold), Studies from Nature (703 sold), Dracula (sold out), Book of the New Sun (sold out)
2018 Love Is Enough (600+ sold), Kama Sutra (550+ sold), The Wanderer (sold out), I Am Legend (sold out)
2017 Riddley Walker (600+ sold), Micrographia (sold out), Count of Monte Christo (sold out), Call of Cthulhu (sold out), Song of Songs (sold out separately, 100- remain in numbered sets)

I've collected an overview of Past LEs as far as I can go back (roughly 2005) with the (approximate) time it took them to be sold out. Will add the latest books to that and then share it here if anyone is interested.

>370 Fierylunar: Will add the latest books to that and then share it here if anyone is interested.

Count me in for that, definitely.

>369 NLNils: >370 Fierylunar: Nice work on these...and I agree with >371 folio_books:, I'd be very interested in seeing the remainder of the list...I have been eyeing Gargantua and Pantagruel but the price makes me hold back, wonder if it will ever be a part of a sale? It's selling, but never overly fast.

It's going to require some more work than I initially thought, I am missing quite some data still (author, limitation number, published price). I will work on it in my free time and share it here when I'm done.

Edit: I have the entire list of LEs up to date up until The Wind in the Willows' publication date / sold out date. I am currently going through the FSD search and WayBackMachine to find more data on older LEs. The FS website before 2009 is proving to be little help, so hopefully the FSD group will come to the rescue.

Of the LEs I have, 3 of them are Hansel and Gretel, The Door in the Wall and The Pearl Manuscript all of which are dwindling in number. My opinions:

1. Hansel and Gretel; Due to content and magnificence of this book it is easily my most treasured item. It's lighter in weight than you would think and very easy on the eyes. A fantastic way to read Grimm and if you're interested in them at all, don't miss it.

2. Door in the Wall; is a don't miss period. I favor Hansel and Gretel, but that's all personal. The reality is, The Door in the Wall is rare and incredibly well done. The stories are okay as you read them online, but as sitting with the book often does, the stories begin to shine. The entire presentation invokes the period and feeling of the stories, which satisfy a more pleasant theme than one might think whilst reading.

3. The Pearl Manuscript; I bought this for the Fascimile, which is well achieved. For the US buyer, just like some other selections we are paying a very hefty premium. I wanted this volume pretty badly, so I'm not a great measuring tool as I would pay full price, but for the average US buyer, I would wait for the sale. The price as converted from 360£ would be fair, but that's not what we're getting. Overall the companion volume is very nice and quite resourceful and the case is quite nifty. It's overall a very sturdy production.

I was just looking through the Limited Editions section and noticed that Doctor Zhivago now has a counter on it: 62 copies remaining. Proper FS success publication and kudos to them for it. Will be interesting to see when it sells out.

>370 Fierylunar: Fierylunar: Will add the latest books to that and then share it here if anyone is interested.

Count me in for that!

>376 LostStar: Already available here. Enjoy!

Studies from Nature is down to 11.

Quick pre-sale statistics then, half a month later:

Studies from Nature 11 (-36)
Doctor Zhivago 47 (-15)
Hansel and Gretel 47 (-20)
The Door in the Wall 59 (-3)
The Pearl Manuscript 45 (-1)

Vague remaining stock (low-high):
Fine Press Classics: fewer than 100
Love is Enough: fewer than 150
Riddley Walker: fewer than 150
Kama Sutra: fewer than 200
Gargantua and Pantagruel: fewer than 200
The Pilgrim's Progress: fewer than 250
Cinderella & The Sleeping Beauty: fewer than 250
The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman: fewer than 450

Magna Carta is now officially sold out, and Studies from Nature should normally sell out before next week is over as FOMO is kicking in. The only thing that could prevent that from happening is people's attention switching over to the Summer Sale. The email alerting people to the low stock for Hansel and Gretel has done its work as well, and Zhivago is still going strong. Those two will most likely not see the end of Summer either. The Door in the Wall continues its slow slog downwards, and Pearl would probably require a sale to properly sell out.

As far as the Summer Sale is concerned: seeing Riddley Walker or Plants of the Americas included is no big surprise, they've been on sale before. London & New York can go anywhere, we have no indication on how well/poorly it has performed after it was released. Kama Sutra I did not expect: other LEs require more help selling out than this title (looking at you, Letterpress Shakespeare, Fine Press Classics, and WW1 poets).

As I'm expecting we will see some sort of Letterpress Shakespeare sale as well during the sale (online exclusive?), I'll include their current standing here (changes since May 15th >352 joco30:):

King Lear: 20 (=)
Othello: 59 (-2)
Comedy of Errors: 12 (-1)
A Midsummer Night's Dream: 39 (-4)
Merry Wives of Windsor: 16 (=)
Two Gentlemen of Verona: 21 (unknown)
The Tempest: 25 (-4)

>376 LostStar: LostStar: Already available here. Enjoy!

Amazing! Great Work! I love it.

Studies from Nature is now sold out.

Curiously, The Door in the Wall is now indicating that it is low stock at 34 copies and sold out at the same time. We will see whether it will return for the last 34, or if it is really sold out and more were sold than the FS administration indicated.

>382 Fierylunar:, for what it is worth, after all the wonderful reviews here on LT, and fear of losing out, I purchased a copy Thursday, when it was at a 35 count. I did get a shipping confirmation and DHL expects delivery here in TX on Tuesday. So at least there were still copies two days ago.

Edit: seems to have been a website issue. The count is back at 32 copies, which sounds about right. I know this one has been lingering for a bit, but the final sales always seem to go quickly.

>379 Fierylunar: Magna Carta is now officially sold out

I don't think it is. It's only out of stock.

"This facsimile is produced in small quantities. Production is currently halted. Notify me when back in stock. *"

so with not many copies of Door in the Wall or Kama Sutra left, can any devotees advise which is the better purchase at this time, with KS being in the sale?

I'm swayed more towards the Wells, but love the art in Kama Sutra

>385 stumc: I'm swayed more towards the Wells, but love the art in Kama Sutra

I have both. If forced to choose between the two, I'd pick The Door in the Wall every time. I was actually disappointed with the art in the Kama Sutra, particularly the colour illustrations. I didn't buy it immediately on release and took some convincing. When I received it I found the smaller black and white drawings were much more satisfactory so I'm glad I have it but, in my opinion, The Door in the Wall is a much superior production.

Almost a month later, 4 LEs close to selling out and a few vague counters that were updated.

Hansel and Gretel 13 (-34)
Kama Sutra of Vatyayana 30 (-170)
The Door in the Wall 21 (-38)
The Pearl Manuscript 22 (-23)

Vague remaining stock (low-high):
Fine Press Classics: fewer than 100
Love is Enough: fewer than 150
Kama Sutra: fewer than 200
Gargantua and Pantagruel: fewer than 150 (-50)
The Pilgrim's Progress: fewer than 250
Cinderella & The Sleeping Beauty: fewer than 200 (-50)
The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman: fewer than 375 (-75)

Sold out
Doctor Zhivago (-47)
Riddley Walker (-150)
Studies from Nature (-11)

>385 stumc:

Kama Sutra is beautiful. Love the illustrations and the interior of the traycase is magnificent. Main volume is large but fairly light due to the cloth (instead of leather) binding, light enough to read laying down (my preferred reading position).

The extra art print is nice but nothing special. The commentary is also a bit "meh" to me.

>385 stumc:

Those are so different it's really impossible for me to say which would be better. (I have both.) The Kama Sutra is visually gorgeous (to me at least) and I find it interesting from a historic / cultural point of view - it's not (just) what you would expect from the way it's generally viewed in the west. The Wells has a completely different atmosphere and contains stories. Both are worth having. Now if only one could estimate which will be cheaper / more expensive when sold second hand once they're sold out, things would be a lot easier.

>389 SF-72: I would not use the Richard Burton translation to get a cultural/historical point of view in 2020. The below article cites few examples:

https://lithub.com/redeeming-the-kamasutra/

>390 venkysuniverse:

Thank you for the link, that's an interesting article, especially about the developments in India. As for the translation: That's a general problem with FS often choosing older translations that take (too many) liberties with the original text. I wish they went for other translations unless it's really meant to go into a western historic context or a translation almost being a work of art on its own. Their edition of the Metamorphosis made sense for me in that regard.

>388 MobyRichard: Moby Richard: Kama Sutra is... light enough to read laying down (my preferred reading position).

*sniggers* Thanks for clarifying.

>391 SF-72: I agree too on the choice of translations. It was a real shame that they chose Burton's translation over a recent one, especially since it was not a facsimile. Even for the Bhagavad Gita, they went with Juan Mascaro instead of the critically acclaimed translation by Eknath Easwaran. It is a real shame as FS editorial team should engage with local experts when they decide to publish books of this nature and not just default to European translators. In the next survey, they should decide on a book and maybe survey the choice of the translator :)

Hopefully this is the right place to ask this question - did the Letterpress Shakespeare books ever ship from FS without the solander case and companion volume? I've done a bit of Googling and can't find any information.

I'm asking as I came across a seller who has for sale a copy of one of the publications, saying it came with just the slipcase, and I'd like to confirm this is so.

>394 U_238: Yes, some did.

>393 venkysuniverse:

I enjoy the translation and it is historically significant from what I recall (first English translation?) To me it's better than hiring some academic with no ear for poetry to do it which is the likely alternate scenario. You're rarely going to get a great writer who is also a great translator.

>396 MobyRichard: "You're rarely going to get a great writer who is also a great translator."

So is the solution to hire both a translator and a great writer? The translator translates and then the writer refines and beautifies the translation?

>395 ultrarightist: Thank you.

>394 U_238:
>395 ultrarightist:

Some of the brochures available in this group’s Wiki regarding the Shakespeare Letterpress announcement mention that of the 3750 available, 1000 of each title is also available alone. I was just reviewing that the other day and found it interesting and now you’ve confirmed they are out in the wild.

Edit: Macbeth brochure mentions this For one

>399 BionicJim: Thank you! I also noticed the FS sale includes the Oxford companion volumes. So if someone wanted to grab the corresponding edition, it wouldn't be a terrible idea to get to something closer to a "complete" set, without the solander box.

>399 BionicJim:

Yes, it was a temporary offering - I think I'm right in saying that slipcased versions weren't initially available, became available in response to members' requests, but were withdrawn quite some time before the Letterpress Shakespeare series was completed.

Kama Sutra down to 4 copies.

>402 MobyRichard:

Also, Poetic Edda has this cryptic message: "The final copies of The Poetic Edda are currently being bound. Notify me when back in stock."

Not sure how many copies = "final."

Crosspost:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/306322#7269303

Gulliver’s Travels is down to its last 5 copies.

>394 U_238: For some time the Folio Society allowed readers to order a copy either in the box with companion volume, or in a simple slip case. In either case, the volume should still be numbered and within the limitation.

Also out in the wild you will occasionally find some "naked" copies that have neither slipcase nor box and are unnumbered. These seem to have been excess stock that have leaked from the Folio Society at some point.

I have a bunch of information about the series here if you're interested: https://ubiquitousbooks.wordpress.com/2020/05/13/the-letterpress-shakespeare/

>406 ubiquitousuk: Thank you. I’ve enjoyed your blog and the associated YouTube videos very much.

Sharpe’s Tiger Deluxe Edition: Low Stock: 25 left.

>408 bookfair_e:

Glad to see the Standard+ edition is down to 25 copies.

15 left. I expect it to disappear soon.

Sharpe Deluxe - Sold Out.

I doubt this notice will induce a stampede for remaining stock, but I purchased what appears to be number 10 of the remaining copies of The Royal Choirbook since only 9 may now be added to the shopping basket.

The Morris Facsimile, Love Is Enough, is down to 22 copies (I received an email yesterday of there being only 50 copies left, so it is going fast).

Love Is Enough is now down to seven copies--that's low enough that the book sellers will come in and scoop up the remaining copies so they'll probably all be gone later today.