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The Collation

“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: April 2016

Welcome to our April crocodile mystery! So tell us, dear readers, why this scrap of paper is in our collection, and what it might be?

April_crocodile_mystery

Comments

I think it reads “[Soth]eby sale”. Are there any prizes?

Brian Vickers — March 31, 2016

Reply

It looks like good quality paper, judging from the edges. But it doesn’t look like old paper. Hard to see if there are chain or wire lines. Symmetry suggests it was folded before being torn. “Sotheby sale” is surely the right reading. But why was it torn off, and from what? If it’s in the Folger collection, someone thought (or thinks) it has value.

William Ingram — March 31, 2016

Reply

Given that this is the year that copies of the First Folio are touring the states, I’m going to guess that this slip of paper was found inside one of the folios after being bought by the Folgers.

Tom Reedy — April 4, 2016

Reply

Agree with Sotheby as being the first word. Importantly, this is Henry Folger’s handwriting.

Stephen Grant — July 14, 2019

Reply

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