KELMSCOTT PRESS: CHAUCER, Geoffrey.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Works, now newly imprinted. First Kelmscott edition, one of 425 copies on paper, in an embroidered slipcover dated 1899 that is unrecorded in the published census. This accomplished piece of amateur needlework reproduces Burne-Jones's Hypsipyle and Medea woodcut and belongs to an illustrious tradition of removable textile covers associated with what Yeats described as "the most beautiful of all printed books."In their census, the Petersons record several such adornments associated with copies. The Morgan Library holds Sydney Cockerell's presentation copy from Morris, accompanied by Cockerell's note that "the chintz cover of this book (designed by Morris) was given to me at Kelmscott by Mrs Morris who made it for her own copy of the Chaucer, from which she removed" (2.132). An example of non-professional handicraft is held by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Their copy was inherited by Maud Helen Hargreave (1892-1977) from her father, and she is believed to have embroidered the book's linen cover (2.209).The present slipcover is likely the domestic handiwork of a female member of the original owner's family. The reverse is embroidered with the date 1899 and a monogram incorporating the letters "J" and "P". The ties are embellished with coronets, which may be a later addition. The Wardington copy is particularly noteworthy in this context. Bound by Annie Macdonald for John William Beaumont Pease (1869–1950), it is likewise dated 1899 and stamped with Pease's initials. Its mor

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