[KELMSCOTT PRESS]; Geoffrey CHAUCER. The Works, now newly imprinted. A Facsimile edition of the Kelmscott Chaucer with an essay by William S. Peterson. London: The Folio Society. 2002.
Folio. Publisher’s full white Niger morocco, richly decorated in gilt with a design after a Doves Bindery binding by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, top edge gilt, blue silk marker, in clamshell box; ornamental title, 14 large borders, 18 different frames round the illustrations, 26 initials designed by William Morris and 87 illustrations designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones and engraved by W. H. Hooper; shoulder and side titles printed in red and the whole printed in two columns in Chaucer type designed by William Morris; fine.
Limited facsimile edition of William Morris’s masterpiece, no. 884 of 1010 copies on Oxenford twin-wire laid paper, of which 1000 were for sale.
The monumental Kelmscott Chaucer, with engravings after Edward Burne-Jones, was completed shortly before William Morris’s death on 3 October 1896, and originally issued in only 425 copies. Burne-Jones described it as “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”.
SKU: 2124672