Buffalo & Erie County Public Libraries

This copy was purchased by Henry Clay Folger and was, shortly after that, in 1920, used in an exchange which provided Folger with the Gilburne copy. In 1919, Gabriel Wells, a New York book dealer, purchased a copy of the First Folio for Colonel Charles Clifton. That copy was described as having probably belonged to Samuel Gilburne, one of the actors in Shakespeare’s company. The only “proof” for this claim is that Gilburne’s name is handwritten next to his printed name in the list of “Princinpall Actors”. Henry Clay Folger coveted that copy, so when he discovered that Clifton had already bought it, he offered him $6,000.00 (double of the original catalogue price). Clifton first refused, but they eventually came to an agreement: Folger got the Gilburne copy in exchange for a more perfect copy, the one now housed in the in the Grosvenor Rare Book Room at the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. In addition to his First Folio, Clifton acquired copies of the Second, Third and Fourth Folios along with a copy of the 1640 Poems. In 1926, Clifton donated all of these volumes to the Grosvenor Library, which merged with two other libraries in 1953 and became the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library.