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(KELMSCOTT PRESS) CHAUCER, Geoffrey.
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer now newly imprinted.
Publisher: printed by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, 1896
Stock code: 52307
Price: £60,000 Currency Conversion
First Kelmscott edition, one of 425 copies on paper. The book was originally issued in either the standard Kelmscott binding of quarter holland boards or in full pigskin by the Doves Bindery. The quarter holland boards were essentially too flimsy for this, the most ambitious and magnificent book of the Press, and many copies were subsequently put into commissioned pigskin or morocco bindings. The paper is made entirely of linen by Batchelor, with a Morris-designed watermark copied from an Italian incunable in his own library. The text is from Skeat's new edition of Chaucer, by permission of the Clarendon Press. The illustrations are by Burne-Jones, who spent every Sunday for almost three years on the drawings, which were then transferred to woodblocks by W. H. Hooper and R. Catterson-Smith under Burne-Jones's close supervision. Burne-Jones called the book "a pocket cathedral … it is so full of design, and the finest book ever printed; if W. M. had done nothing else it would be enough."
Folio. Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in full pigskin over heavy reverse bevelled boards, raised bands and headcaps, compartments ruled in gilt, gilt lettered in second compartment and at foot, covers ruled around in gilt, wide inner dentelles ruled in gilt, gilt edges. 87 woodcut illustrations after Sir Edward Burne-Jones, redrawn by Robert Catterson-Smith and cut by W. H. Hooper, woodcut title-page, 14 variously repeated woodcut borders, 18 variously repeated woodcut frames around illustrations, 26 nineteen-line woodcut initial words, numerous three-, six-, and ten-line woodcut initial letters, and woodcut printer's device, all designed by William Morris and cut by C. E. Keates, W. H. Hooper, and W. Spielmeyer. Printed in black and red in Chaucer type, the titles of longer poems printed in Troy type. Double columns. Edited by F.S. Ellis. A fine copy.
