Ian Ehling
Head of Department
Lot 46
KELMSCOTT CHAUCER: THE FINEST BOOK SINCE THE GUTENBERG BIBLE. CHAUCER, GEOFFREY. 1343-1400. The Works ... now newly imprinted. Edited by F.S. Ellis. Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1896.
17 December 2024, 12:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$114,800 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
KELMSCOTT CHAUCER: THE FINEST BOOK SINCE THE GUTENBERG BIBLE.
CHAUCER, GEOFFREY. 1343-1400. The Works ... now newly imprinted. Edited by F.S. Ellis. Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1896.
Folio. Printed in Chaucer and Troy types, in red and black, woodcut title, borders and initials by C.E. Keates, W.H. Hooper and W. Spielmeyer after William Morris, 87 woodcut illustrations by W.H. Hooper after Edward Burne-Jones. Near contemporary full brown calf by Riviere and Son, elaborate blind stamped (echoing original designs found on pigskin bindings, and early German bindings), spine in seven compartments gilt lettered in second, top edge gilt, others uncut.
Provenance: purchased from Goodspeed's Book Shop, Boston, 30 September 1963.
LIMITED EDITION, one of 425 copies of a total edition of 438. "THE FINEST BOOK SINCE GUTENBERG" (Franklin). The supreme achievement of the forty-year artistic collaboration between Morris and Burne-Jones, and of the Kelmscott Press: "the final chapter of co-operation; the venture in which their particular talents are combined for the last time, and to spectacular effect" (Robinson). Earliest plans for the work date to 1891 and the book announced to Kelmscott Press subscribers in December, however the actual printing of the book did not begin until August 1894, and was only issued to subscribers in June 1896. Not recorded in Peterson The Kelmscott Chaucer, A Census 2011; Franklin Private Presses p 192; Peterson A40; Robinson William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and the Kelmscott Chaucer.
Folio. Printed in Chaucer and Troy types, in red and black, woodcut title, borders and initials by C.E. Keates, W.H. Hooper and W. Spielmeyer after William Morris, 87 woodcut illustrations by W.H. Hooper after Edward Burne-Jones. Near contemporary full brown calf by Riviere and Son, elaborate blind stamped (echoing original designs found on pigskin bindings, and early German bindings), spine in seven compartments gilt lettered in second, top edge gilt, others uncut.
Provenance: purchased from Goodspeed's Book Shop, Boston, 30 September 1963.
LIMITED EDITION, one of 425 copies of a total edition of 438. "THE FINEST BOOK SINCE GUTENBERG" (Franklin). The supreme achievement of the forty-year artistic collaboration between Morris and Burne-Jones, and of the Kelmscott Press: "the final chapter of co-operation; the venture in which their particular talents are combined for the last time, and to spectacular effect" (Robinson). Earliest plans for the work date to 1891 and the book announced to Kelmscott Press subscribers in December, however the actual printing of the book did not begin until August 1894, and was only issued to subscribers in June 1896. Not recorded in Peterson The Kelmscott Chaucer, A Census 2011; Franklin Private Presses p 192; Peterson A40; Robinson William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and the Kelmscott Chaucer.
