KELMSCOTT PRESS: CHAUCER, Geoffrey.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Works, Now Newly Imprinted. Limited Folio Society facsimile edition of the Kelmscott Chaucer, number 151 of 1,010 copies.The most ambitious and magnificent book of the press, "The Kelmscott Chaucer is not only the most important of the Kelmscott Press's productions; it is also one of the great books of the world. Its splendour can hardly be matched among the books of the time" (Ray, p. 159). W. B. Yeats described it as "the most beautiful of all printed books"; Burne-Jones called it "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" (Peterson, p. 111).The Folio Society's facsimile is printed for the publisher by Cambridge University Press, and is true to the original both in design and quality. "The paper, Oxenford twin-wire laid, has been specially made at the James Cropper Mill at Burneside in Cumbria and supplied by John Purcell Paper. The binding design has been redrawn by David Eccles from a copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer bound by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson at the Doves Bindery in 1900. The binding of this edition has been executed by Smith Settle at Otley, Yorkshire, in full Nigerian goatskin, with handmade laid endpapers from the Fabriano Mill, Italy" (colophon). This copy is complete with the note on the binding and the accompanying essay booklet by William S. Peterson.

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