THE BARD

[David Klappholz <david@GAUSS.STEVENS-TECH.EDU>]

In 1921 Charles Sessler, the antiquarian bookseller of Philadelphia purchased,
 at the Thomas Hatton Sale in London, a second folio which contained a quarto
 sheet of paper bearing what Sessler believed to be a few lines in Wm.
 Shakespeare's hand.  The obvious thought was that it was an Ireland forgery.
 This possibility was argued against by citing the fact(?) that the Hatton
 library had been locked up since Ireland was ten years old.

Sessler left England, with the scrap of paper, without having it looked
at by any of the obvious authorities such as Sir Sydney (sp?) Lee.  A picture of
 the scrap was plastered across the tops of the front pages of a few of the
Philadelphia papers;  the accompanying articles indicated that Sessler was
planning to have it looked at by Schelling and Furness.  Unfortunately, the
 folks at Penn have been unable to locate any Sessler-Schelling or
 Sessler-Furness correspondence regarding it.

The New York Times ignored the story entirely, and a writer in at least one
 bookish periodical scoffed at the possibility that Sessler had bought a
 Shakespeare manuscript.  In a 1929 Publishers' Weekly interview Sessler stated
 that he had been vindicated about his Skakespeare holograph.

I must admit that I have not yet followed up on a number of 1924 articles on
 discoveries of examples of Shakespeare's handwriting, but have, nevertheless,
 decided to post this query.

Does anyone know what the final verdict was (not that I have much doubt) ?

Does anyone know where the scrap of paper now resides?  (It is, perhaps
 suspicious that in 1922 or 1923 Sessler sold a "Hatton-Ireland" forgery to
 Henry Clay Folger.)

Please reply to david@gauss.stevens-tech.edu

Thanks

Dave Klappholz