Exhibit Tags: Kelmscott Press Collection, Cleveland Museum of Art Ingalls Library

William Morris
The Story of the Glittering Plain
Dated 4 April, Issued 8 May 1891
Quarto, vellum binding, Batchelor Flower (1) paper,
Golden type; 200 paper copies, 6 on vellum

William Morris
The Story of the Glittering Plain,
which has also been called the Land of the
Living Men or the Acre of the Undying
Dated 13 January, Issued 17 February 1894
Large quarto, vellum binding, Batchelor Perch paper,
Troy type with Chaucer; 250 paper copies, 7 on vellum

William Morris was so eager to start his “typographical adventure” that
he printed the Kelmscott Press’ ﬁrst title in 1891 before Walter Crane’s
slated illustrations were even completed.

Morris had originally planned on printing only twenty copies for
friends, but quickly sold 180 for-sale copies after an announcement in
Athenaeum on 4 April 1891. The autographed message inside the Ingalls
Library’s copy reveals it was originally a gift from editor F. S. Ellis to his
daughter.

This ﬁrst book sets the tone for what will be a remarkably consistent
Press aesthetic, even though the leather ties are unique and many of the
trademark Kelmscott features had yet to be introduced.

Twenty-three Crane pictures were eventually engraved by A. Leverett
for the 1894 edition, making The Glittering Plain the only Kelmscott title
printed twice. All of Morris’ borders and six of his seven frames are
unique to the reprint; they were engraved by W. H. Hooper.
Kelmscott Publication Nos. 1 and 22 of 53

William Morris
Poems by the Way
Dated 24 September, Issued 20 October 1891

Pre-Raphaelite painter Charles Fairfax Murray helped Morris compile
this collection of fugitive pieces. The poems were originally published
in periodicals between 1868-1889 except for “Goldilocks & Goldilocks.”
Morris composed this poem so the volume would meet his minimum
idea of a publishable length.

This is the ﬁrst Kelmscott title to appear in two colors, with rubrication
reminiscent of medieval manuscripts. Press Secretary Sydney Cockerell
describes a failed attempt to stain the vellum covers of Poems by the Way
red, yellow, indigo and dark green.

The ﬁrst Kelmscott printer’s mark appears on the colophon, in keeping
with convention; its appearance at the end of the table of contents is,
however, a bit unusual. Scholar William Peterson speculates that Morris
was “apparently so pleased with his new printer’s mark that he used it
twice.”
Kelmscott Publication No. 2 of 53

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
The Love-Lyrics and Songs of Proteus
Golden type; 300 paper copies, none on vellum

Originally planned as a reprint of two of Blunt’s earlier anthologies,
Morris urged the author to add a new poem. “Natalia’s Resurrection” is
suggestive of Blunt’s affair with Margaret Talbot, the wife of the
Military Secretary at the British Embassy in Paris.

After receiving what he described as a “wild letter” from Talbot, Blunt
decided to omit the poem despite claiming in his diary that it “had
nothing really to do with her.” Scholar John Walsdorf located a copy
inscribed:

To Most Dear Margaret this book, which was made beautiful
for her, is given Paris May 1, 1892, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt.

Morris’ wife also had an affair with Blunt. According to scholar William
Peterson, Janey Morris “sent detailed criticisms” and proofed the whole
book. She was not known to have edited any other Kelmscott title.


John Ruskin
The Nature of Gothic:
A Chapter of the Stones of Venice
Dated 15 February, Issued 22 March 1892

As an art critic and social theorist, John Ruskin heavily inﬂuenced
Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites. He rejected Classicism and praised
Gothic medievalism, articulating a moralism shared by Morris. Ruskin
emphasized the methodology of direct observation, the representation
of truth, and the need for authentic craftsmanship in the face of
standardizing industrialization.

This chapter from Stones of Venice (1851) was ﬁrst published separately
by philologist and Christian Socialist F. J. Furnivall for the opening of
the London Working Man’s College in 1854. The line block diagrams
used in Ruskin’s architectural study are atypical for a Kelmscott
publication.


William Morris
The Defence of Guenevere,
and other poems

This is the only Kelmscott publication with a title inscribed by hand; the
calligraphy along the spine of this book was done by Kelmscott editor F.
S. Ellis’ son. Herbert Ellis was a partner at Withall & Ellis, Architects
and Surveyors.


William Morris
A Dream of John Ball;
and, a King’s Lesson

John Ball (circa 1338-1381) was an English priest who spread the
doctrines of reformer John Wycliffe (circa 1320-1384) and who
encouraged rioters during the 1831 peasants revolt known as Wat
Tyler’s Rebellion. He was executed shortly after the riot. In this book,
Morris envisions a socialist utopia in England based on a dream of John
Ball.

John Ball ﬁrst appeared serially in 1887 in the Commonweal, the organ of
Morris’ breakaway Socialist League. This version’s frontispiece was
engraved by W. H. Hooper after being redrawn from the one by Edward
Burne-Jones in the 1888 monograph edition of this title.


Jacobus de Voragine
The Golden Legend
Dated 12 September, Issued 3 November 1892
Translated by William Caxton, Edited by F. S. Ellis
Quarto, quarter-Holland cloth binding with blue paper on
boards, Batchelor Flower (2) paper, Golden type
500 paper copies, none on vellum

This hagiography was meant to be the first book of the Press, but the
original paper delivery was not sized correctly. Due to this delay and
the sheer length of the three volumes, a 1959 Duschnes catalog reveals
the work was coined “The Interminable” because it was “so long in
press.”

A medieval bestseller among both elite clergy and the vernacular-
reading public, this thirteenth century collection of lives of the saints
was one of the first books printed in English by William Caxton in 1483.
For this edition, Ellis’ daughter Phyllis transcribed Caxton’s first edition
from the Cambridge University library.

The respected London book dealer Bernard Quaritch agreed to publish
250 copies at his own expense if Morris and Ellis worked in exchange
for 12 copies each. Morris maintained complete artistic control over the
project, but this publishing venture saw the first of many
misunderstandings between Morris and the bookseller: Quaritch raised
prices, the trade did not push the book, and many copies remained on
Quaritch’s hands. Within a year, Morris started self-publishing.

This publication boasts the first woodcut title page designed by Morris.
The wood engraved illustrations are by Edwards Burne-Jones. Friends
of the Press attended a book launch celebration dinner including
Christian Socialist F. J. Furnivall, bibliographer Edward Gordon Duff,
scholar-librarian Richard Garnett, fitness advocate William Blaikie, Pre-
Raphaelite author W. M. Rosetti, and engraver Emery Walker.

Raoul Lefèvre
The Recuyell of the
Historyes of Troye
Dated 14 October, Issued 24 November 1892
Translated by William Caxton,
Edited by H. Halliday Sparling

This courtly romance was the first book printed in English by William
Caxton and was a favorite of William Morris’. For the Kelmscott
edition, Morris designed many new initials and ornaments. It is the first
publication in the black letter Troy type, as well as the first to use the
smaller Chaucer type.


J. W. Mackail
Biblia Innocentium:
Being the Story of God’s Chosen People
before the Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ
upon Earth, written anew for children
Dated 22 October, Issued 9 December 1892
Octavo, vellum binding, Batchelor Flower (2) paper,

This is the ﬁrst octavo by Kelmscott Press. It was sold by Reeves &
Turner, although this information seems to have been inadvertently
omitted from the colophon.

Mackail was Burne-Jones’ son-in-law and the ﬁrst biographer of Morris.
He was also a socialist, a Virgil scholar, a professor of poetry at Oxford,
and president of the British Academy.


The History of Reynard the Foxe
Dated 15 December 1892, Issued 25 January 1893
Translated by William Caxton,

This edition is reprinted from William Caxton’s 1481 printing of the
Dutch medieval beast epic. In the Early English Text Society edition of
Reynard (1970) editor N. F. Blake says the Kelmscott version “is
unreliable and the punctuation in it has been modernised.”


William Shakespeare
The Poems of William Shakespeare,
Printed After the Original Copies of Venus
and Adonia, 1593. The Rape of Lucrece, 1594.
Sonnets, 1609. The Lover’s Complaint.
Edited by F. S. Ellis

This volume was one of the most in-demand books ever produced by
Kelmscott Press. In 1898, Sydney Cockerell describes it as “one of the
rare books issued from the Press because of its popularity.”

This popularity was apparently earned despite the text’s scholarly
ﬂaws. According to Kelmscott scholar William S. Peterson, Ellis later
wrote that his friend and fellow man of letters F. J. Furnivall

has been taking me roundly to task for some crimes committed in the
Shakespeare’s Poems – so much that I am thinking of imprinting it yet once
again.


William Morris
News from Nowhere:
or, An Epoch of Rest, Being Some
Chapters from a Utopian Romance.
Issued 24 March 1893

According to Philip C. Duschnes, Morris’ utopian novel was written as
“an answer to Bellamy’s Looking Backward which Morris considered an
indictment of socialism.”

The frontispiece by C. M. Gere is of Kelmscott Manor, the Morris’
Oxfordshire home from which the Press took its name. The text to this
book was printed before the eleventh publication, the Shakespeare, yet
its release was delayed waiting for the image of the house. The
frontispiece was engraved by W. H. Hooper.


Ramon Llull
The Order of Chivalry
Dated 10 November 1892, Issued 12 April 1893
Translated by William Caxton, Edited by F. S. Ellis

& L’Ordene de Chevalrie
Dated 24 February 1891, Issued 12 April 1893
Translated by William Morris
Quarto (last section octavo), vellum binding,
Batchelor Flower (1) and (2) papers, Chaucer type
225 paper copies, 10 on vellum

This reprint of the 1484 Caxton edition is the ﬁrst Kelmscott book
printed in Chaucer type. The French poem and its translation were
added as an afterthought, hence the odd format. Ellis originally
translated the poem into prose, but Morris decided to use his own verse
translation instead.


George Cavendish
The Life of Thomas Wolsey,
Cardinal, Archbishop of York
Dated 30 March, Issued 30 May 1893

This is one of several Kelmscott volumes which, despite its unparalleled
technical and artistic merits, has been questioned on scholarly grounds.
Richard S. Sylvester, the editor of a modern scholarly edition, insists the
Press’ version is “shot through with errors.”


William of Tyre
The History of Godefrey of Bologne
and the conquest of Ierusalem
Translated by William Caxton
Large quarto, vellum binding, Batchelor
Flower (2) paper, Troy type with Chaucer

This book is the fifth and last of the series of William Caxton’s texts
which were reprinted by the Kelmscott Press. Caxton’s 1681 edition
was based on the original Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum
or A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea. Morris called the book “a very
serious piece of history,” which is echoed by Philip C. Duschnes:

This work is double interesting as a record of the Crusades and the
formation of the short-lived kingdoms in the East. It shows medieval
chivalry as it actually was – not as represented by poets and storytellers.

The highly decorative edition features many new ornaments and
initials, as well as a new printer’s mark designed especially for this
book. It was the first book published and sold at Kelmscott Press.

This annoyed the noted London bookseller Bernard Quaritch, who felt
that in his desire for all of the profits, Morris “will be a loser by it, but…
be a nuisance to me on account of the Chaucer” which he was
contracted to publish. He was correct; Godefrey did not succeed and
Jane Morris eventually donated the remaining copies to public libraries.


Thomas More
Utopia
Dated 4 August, Issued 8 September 1893
Octavo, vellum binding, Batchelor
Flower (2) paper, Chaucer type

The Ingalls Library’s copy of this book contains several interesting
autographs. The ﬁrst, which appears on the front free end paper, is an
1893 note in Ellis’ hand presenting the copy to the philologist and
Christian Socialist F. J. Furnivall. Furnivall then gave the book to a
different friend in 1896 and included a second inscription below Ellis’.

Just under the colophon, a small slip of paper is tipped in. It is
autographed in Ellis’ hand and reads:

This I cannot help feeling vexed at my name appearing as editor opposite a
palpable misprint of the ﬁrst printers’ name. I did correct it, but my proof
was lost and the misprint left!

The printer’s name appears as “Weale” when it should have been
“Vele.”

The library’s copy, with its unique autographs, is mentioned in William
Peterson’s bibliography on the Press as well as in a Sotheby’s catalogue
dated 18 December 1919.


Alfred Tennyson
Maud, a Monodrama
Translated by William Caxton
Octavo, vellum binding, Batchelor
Flower (2) paper, Golden type

These borders were designed especially for this book and were later
used in the Keats and The Sundering Flood. The title page, which H.
Halliday Sparling called “one of Morris’ loveliest,” was the ﬁrst
woodcut title in a Kelmscott octavo.

Morris owned Tennyson’s Poems, In Memorium, Maud and The Princess.
This edition was printed for Macmillan & Co., and Morris later
confessed to W. S. Blunt “I would sooner… have printed them
Tennyson’s ﬁrst volume, which is all I ever cared for in his poems.”
Additionally, Morris and Burne-Jones publicly disapproved of
Tennyson’s bowdlerization of Le Morte d’Arthur; Tennyson never
forgave them for this.


William Morris
Gothic Architecture:
A Lecture for the Arts and Crafts
Exhibition Society
Printed October and November 1893
Sextodecimo, quarter-Holland cloth binding with blue
paper on boards, Batchelor Flower (2) paper, Golden type

This was the only Kelmscott book not printed on the premises. The
type was set up at Hammersmith and the book was then printed in
public before a crowd at the New Gallery during the Arts and Crafts
Exhibition. The first copies were ready on 21 October and two
successive printings took place before the end of the Exhibition. Vellum
copies sold during the Exhibition for 10 shillings, but the price was later
raised to 15.

The first issue misspelled “Van Eyk” on page 45 and spelled “guilds” as
“gilds” on page 14. The Ingalls Library’s copy is therefore from either
the second or third impression.

This was the first Kelmscott book printed in sextodecimo format and the
four-line initial appeared in this title for the first time. The book
contains no printer’s mark.


William Meinhold
Sidonia the Sorceress
Issued 1 November 1893
Translated by Francesca Speranza Lady Wilde.
Large quarto, vellum binding, Batchelor Flower (2) paper,

The publisher’s announcement, which was accompanied with a
specimen page, describes this as

an historical Romance, based more or less on fact, concerning the Witch
Fever that afﬂicted Northern Europe during the latter half of the 15th and
ﬁrst half of the 16th centuries.

It also calls both of Meinhold’s books “almost faultless reproductions of
the life of the past.”

The copyediting of this work was hardly faultless, though. In a letter
Ellis listed -- just off the top of his head -- seven typos he had later
noticed.

Lady Wilde, Oscar’s mother, was extremely destitute in the 1890s, so
Morris paid her 35 pounds to translate this volume. The book did not
sell well, however, and thirty copies were bound in quarter-Holland
cloth and donated to British and American libraries.


Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Ballads and Narrative Poems
Dated 14 October, Issued November 1893

Sonnets and Lyrical Poems
Dated 20 February, Issued 21 April 1894

William Michael Rossetti was the literary executor for his brother, who
died in 1882. He read these books for the Press, although it was the
publisher Ellis & Elvey who contacted William Morris to print the set.
Morris wanted to call the ﬁrst volume Ballads and Tales in Verse, but
William Michael changed the title.

The question arose whether the sonnet “Nuptial Sleep” should be
restored to The Houses of Life. Dante Gabriel was prompted to retract the
poem in 1872 due to Robert Buchanan’s criticism. William Michael did
not restore in until 1904 because he felt his brother’s “own decision
commands mine.”

William Morris’ wife Jane had a long-term affair with Dante Gabriel,
who was a close friend of the printer. The lease on the Oxfordshire
summer home and namesake of the Press, Kelmscott Manor, was signed
by both Rossetti and Morris. While Morris was traveling, Jane and
Rossetti lived in the manor with the Morris daughters.

Kelmscott Publication Nos. 20 and 20a of 53

Of King Florus and the Fair Jehane
Dated 16, Issued 28 December 1893
paper on boards, Batchelor Perch paper, Chaucer type

This thirteenth century French story is uniform with Of the Friendship of
Amis and Amile and The Tale of Emperor Coustans and of Over Sea. They
were all taken from the 1865 edition of Nouvelles françoises en prose du
XIIe siėcle. They were announced as “French Tales” in an 1893 list.

Morris’ translations were published by George Allen as Old French
Romances Done into English by William Morris in 1896. Allen had wanted
to reprint the Kelmscott titles, but Morris did not give him permission
to do so.


Of the Friendship of Amis and Amile
Dated 13 March, Issued 4 April 1894

This story, which was incredibly popular in the Middle Ages, was the
inspiration for Morris’ poem Amys & Amillion. This poem was
mentioned in the announcement for the second volume of The Earthly
Paradise, but it was not actually included in the ﬁnal book.

It is uniform with Of King Florus and the Fair Jehane and The Tale of
Emperor Coustans and of Over Sea. They were all taken from the 1856
edition of Nouvelles françoises en prose du XIIe siėcle. They were
announced as “French Tales” in an 1893 list.


John Keats
The Poems of John Keats
Dated 7 March, Issued 8 May 1894

In January of 1898, Press Secretary Sydney Cockerell wrote, “This is
now the most sought after of all the smaller Kelmscott Press books.” In
his 1959 catalog, Philip C. Duschnes declared that “after sixty or more
years, we can make the same comment.”

Morris owned an 1854 edition of Keats’ Poetical Works, which is now
held at Kelmscott Manor, and scholar William Peterson explains that
Morris’ “own poetry, as he admitted, shows indebtedness to Keats.”


Algernon Charles Swinburne
Atalanta in Calydon: A Tragedy
Dated 4 May, Issued 24 July 1894
Troy type with Chaucer and Macmillan Greek type

In their student days at Oxford, Morris and Swinburne shared a love of
Malory and Arthurian legend. They became mutual admirers of each
others work. Atalanta was ﬁrst published in 1865.

This is the only Kelmscott publication to use a typeface not designed by
Morris. Selwyn Image, with Emery Walker’s help, designed a Greek
type based on manuscripts in the British museum. It was ﬁrst used in
Archer Hind’s edition of Plato’s Phaedo. Morris wrote to Macmillan
requesting use of the font, and Macmillan supplied the electrotypes.
This book sold out within weeks of publication.


The Tale of the Emperor of Coustans
and of Over the Sea
Dated 30 August, Issued 26 September 1894

This book is uniform with Of King Florus and the Fair Jehane and Of the
Friendship of Amis and Amile. They were all taken from the 1856 edition
of Nouvelles françoises en prose du XIIe siėcle. They were announced as
“French Tales” in an 1893 list.

The ﬁrst story in this title was the source of The Man Born to Be King in
the Earthly Paradise.


William Morris
The Wood beyond the World
Dated 30 May, Issued 16 October 1894
Chaucer type; 250 paper copies, 8 on vellum

Morris wrote this specifically for the Kelmscott Press; “hence in the
manuscript,” scholar William Peterson observes, “he indicated the
position of the decorated initials and leaf ornaments.”

The book was issued so long after its printing because Edward Burne-
Jones’ frontispiece was delayed. It was engraved on wood by W.
Spielmeyer. The borders and half-borders designed by Morris are used
for the first time in this publication.

Morris received royalties for the first trade edition by Lawrence and
Bullen which was published in 1895. A reviewer in The Spectator
assumed a Socialist allegory between Capitol and Labor, but Morris
responded with a letter to the editor claiming:

...it is meant for a tale pure and simple, with nothing didactic about it. If I
have to write or speak on social problems, I always try to be as direct as I
possibly can be.


Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani
The Book of Wisdom and Lies
Finished 29 September, Issued 29 October 1894
Translated by Oliver Wardrop

As this story originates in Georgia, that country’s arms, which consist of
the Holy Coat, are depicted on the woodcut title page.

William Morris printed this publication for Bernard Quaritch, the noted
London bookseller and publisher. Morris supplied the paper,
reproduced the illustration, and set the type from a translator’s
manuscript. Quaritch and Wardrop both promised not to interfere with
the printing, and Quaritch was pleased with the specimen pages.
Morris bought ten copies of the book.


Percy Bysshe Shelley
The Poetical Works of
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Volume I: Issued 29 November 1984
Volume II: Dated 25 March 1895
Volume III: Dated 21 August, Issued 28 October 1895

Ellis advised Morris not to print this title because of its length, although
Morris decided to do so.

The silk ties which typically accompany Kelmscott vellum bindings
were left off of the paper copies of this title “as an experiment,” Sydney
Cockerell wrote, because “some people don’t care for them.” Those
books which were printed on vellum sheets do have ties, however.


Psalmi penitentiales
Dated 15 November, Issued 10 December 1894
Octavo, quarter-Holland cloth binding with blue paper
on boards, Batchelor Flower (2) paper, Chaucer type

The colophon declares that this text is an English rhymed version of the
Seven Penitential Psalms found in a manuscript of Horae Beate Mariae
Virginis written in Gloucester around the year 1440. The Reverend
Professor Walter William Skeat determined that the Kentish dialect of
about a century earlier used in the text must have originated from an
older manuscript.

Ellis and Morris disagreed -- “as usual,” in scholar William Peterson’s
opinion -- about editorial decisions on how (or if) to update the English.

The Ingalls Library’s copy was given from Ellis to his friend F. J.
Furnivall, philologist and a founder of London Working Men’s College.
The book is presented to Furnivall by an autograph on the free
endpaper which also recounts the editor’s role in encouraging Morris to
print this volume.


Girolamo Savonarola
Psalmi penitentiales
Dated 30 November, Issued 12 December 1894
Edited by Charles Fairfax Murray

This volume was not for sale in the typical way. It was one of only three
Kelmscott editions Morris printed for his friends, alongside The Love-
Lyrics and Songs of Proteus and Biblica innocentium.

Charles Fairfax Murray, who worked for Morris & Co. as an artist and
copyist, owned the autographed letter by Savonarola from which this
publication was set. Murray edited the printed version himself. He
also designed the wood-engraved illustration on the title page, basing it
on a sixteenth-century woodcut from Florence.

The edition of 150 was the smallest edition of the Press. Despite
Murray’s editing, the Italian text has an unusually high number of
typographical errors.


The Tale of Beowulf
Translated by William Morris and A. J. Wyatt
Large quarto, vellum binding, Batchelor Perch
paper, Troy type with some Chaucer;

Morris based his verse translation of the Anglo-Saxon scholar Alred
John Wyatt’s 1898 version published by Longmans. Morris said that
Beowulf “was the ﬁrst and the best poem of the English race, [with] no
author but the people.”


Syr Perecyvelle of Gales
Dated 16 February, Issued 2 May 1895
Octavo, quarter-Holland binding with blue paper

This title forms a series together with the Sire Degrevaunt and Syr
Ysambrace. They were reprinted from the Camden Society’s 1844
volume edited by James O. Halliwell after the Thornton manuscript
which Morris had read while at Oxford. The story of Sir Perceval
appears in many medieval manuscripts, and is mentioned by Chaucer
in the tale of Sir Thopas.

The Ingalls Library’s copy contains an autograph claiming, “This book
is from the private stock of Mr. William Morris and was sold to me at
my request made when with Mr. Morris at his house...” There is also an
autographed letter addressed to the owner and signed by Press
Secretary Sydney Cockerell.


William Morris
The Life and Death of Jason, a Poem
Dated 25 May, Issued 5 July 1895
Troy type with some Chaucer;

This poem was immediately successful with general readers and was
praised by Algernon Charles Swinburne, John Ruskin, and Henry
James. These critics and others have noted that Medea is clearly the
heroine over Jason. Jason was ﬁrst published in 1867 and was revised by
Morris for each of the three successive editions, the Kelmscott being the
last. Book production was slow as the Press was completing other
projects simultaneously, most notably the Chaucer.


William Morris
Child Christopher
and Goldilind the Fair
Dated 25 July, Issued 25 September 1895
paper on boards, Batchelor Flower (2) paper, Chaucer type

William Morris’ tale turned out to be longer than originally anticipated,
so it had to be printed in two volumes. Morris increased the number
issued so as to defray production costs. Because the edition size was
more than double the usual, Morris promised never to published Child
Christopher in a cheaper edition.


Hand and Soul
Dated 24 October, Issued 12 December 1895
Sextodecimo, vellum binding, Batchelor Flower (2)
paper, Golden type; 525 paper copies, 21 on vellum

This was the only sextodecimo bound in vellum. It is also the only
Kelmscott Press book published in America.

Kelmscott published 225 paper copies and 10 on vellum for sale in
England and 200 paper copies and 11 on vellum for America. The
Ingalls Library’s copy is the American edition as the colophon says it
was sold by Way & Williams of Chicago.


Robert Herrick
Poems Chosen out of the
Work of Robert Herrick
Dated 21 November, Issued 6 February 1896
Octavo, vellum binding, Batchelor Flower (2)

William Morris was apparently not always a Herrick fan. Biographer J.
W. Mackail reported that Morris said “I like him better than I thought I
should: I daresay we shall make a pretty book of it.”


Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Poems Chosen out of the
Work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Dated 5 February, Issued 12 April 1896
Octavo, vellum binding, Batchelor Flower (2)

This is the last book in the series of poetry books by Tennyson, Rossetti,
Keats, Shelley and Herrick. Morris was even less a fan of Coleridge
than he was of Herrick, writing

Coleridge was a muddle-brained metaphysician, who by some strange freak
of fortune turned out a few real poems amongst a dreary ﬂoor of inanity
which was his wont. It is these real poems only that must be selected, or we
burden the world another useless book...

He chose such poems as “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” “Christable,”
“Kubla Kahn,” and “Love.”


William Morris
The Well at the World’s End
Dated 2 March, Issued 4 July 1896
Large quarto, vellum binding, Batchelor Flower (2)
paper, Chaucer type; 350 paper copies, 8 on vellum

Eight woodcuts and six different ornaments between the columns
appear in this book for the ﬁrst time. Morris decided in the spring of
1893 to let Arthur J. Gaskin illustrate this volume, but Morris was
unhappy with his work. Gaskin revised the drawings and contributed
19 designs in the end, but Philip Webb agreed that the illustrations were
unsatisfactory, and Morris turned to Burne-Jones instead.


Geoffrey Chaucer
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer,
now newly imprinted
Dated 8 May, Issued 26 June 1896
Folio, quarter-Holland cloth binding with blue paper on boards,
Batchelor Perch paper, Chaucer type with Troy headings

The Kelmscott Chaucer was immediately acknowledged as the Press’
“crowning achievement” in an Athenaeum review of October 1896. In
fact, scholar William Peterson informs us it was considered the “most
ambitious and remarkable” of the Kelmscott volumes even prior to its
publication. Reﬂecting on their work together, illustrator Edward
Burne-Jones told William Morris this “was the ﬁnest book ever printed.”

The Kelmscott Chaucer features 87 woodcut illustrations by Burne-
Jones which were engraved by W. H. Hooper. The largest book
produced by the Press, it includes an exquisite woodcut title page, 14
large borders, and 18 frames around the illustrations. Morris designed
26 large initial words which were engraved by V. E. Keats, W. H.
Hooper, and W. Spielmeyer. Morris died four months after his
masterpiece was published.


William Morris
The Earthly Paradise
Volume I: Dated 7 May, Issued 24 July 1896
Volume II: Dated 24 June, Issued 17 September 1896
Volume III: Dated 24 August, Issued 5 December 1896
Volume IV: Dated 25 November, Issued 22 January 1897
Volume V: Dated 24 December 1896, Issued 9 March 1897
Volume VI: Finished 18 February, Issued 11 May 1897 [not held at CMA]
Volume VII: Finished 17 March, Issued 29 July 1987
Volume VII: Finished 10 June, Issued 27 September 1897
Medium quarto, vellum binding, Batchelor Apple paper, Golden type

This multivolume collection contains Morris’ favorite stories from
around the world. He died between the release of volumes III and IV;
the set was finally completed almost a year after his death.

This is the first book printed with the apple watermark. It is the first of
a new size for Kelmscott, what Morris called a “sort of mild quarto,” or
something between a quarto and octavo.

The Ingalls Library is missing volume six of this eight-volume set.
Other than this single volume, the library boasts a full run of Kelmscott
Press publications.


Laudes Beatae Mariae Virginis
Dated 2 March, Issued 4 July 1896
Edited by Sydney C. Cockerell
Large quarto, quarter-Holland binding with blue
paper on boards, Batchelor Perch paper, Troy type

The Latin poems were taken from a psalter written in England around
1220 CE. The book was based on a manuscript owned by Morris which
he called the Nottingham Psalter. After the book was issued, the
Reverend E. S. Dequick informed Kelmscott that they were printed in
1579 at Tegernsee and ascribed to Stephen Langton. Subscribers were
informed by letter.

The book is printed with black, red and blue ink. It is the ﬁrst of two
books to be printed in tricolor at the Kelmscott Press. The other is Love
is Enough.


The Floure and the Leafe, &
The Book of Cupid, God of Love,
or The Cuckow and the Nightingale
Dated 21 August, Issued 2 November 1896
Quarto, quarter-Holland cloth binding with blue paper on boards, Batchelor Apple paper,
Troy type with Chaucer

The two initial words used in this book were designed for the Kelmscott
Chaucer. These poems were commonly attributed to Chaucer, but The
Floure and the Leafe was identiﬁed as a later poem. The Cuckow and the
Nightingale was penned by Sir Thomas Clanvowe around 1405-1410, as
the colophon explains.

Morris had never read The Cuckow and the Nightingale and was waiting
for the book to be in print to do so. The ﬁrst bound copy arrived at
Kelmscott Manor an hour or two before he died on 3 October 1896.


Edmund Spencer
The Shepheardes Calendar:
Conteyning Twelve Æglogues,
Proprtionable to the Twelve Monethes
Dated 14 October, Issued 26 November 1896
Medium quarto, quarter-Holland cloth binding with blue
paper on boards, Batchelor Apple paper, Golden type

The twelve full page illustrations in this book were designed by Arthur
J. Gaskin and printed from process blocks by Walkter & Boutall. The
names of the author, editor, and artist were inadvertently omitted from
the colophon.


William Morris
The Water of the Wondrous Isles
Dated 1 April, Issued 29 July 1897
Large quarto, vellum binding, Batchelor Flower (2) paper,
Chaucer type with Troy; 250 paper copies, 6 on vellum

This is one of the last compositions by Morris. He started it as a poem
in 1895, tried to alternate between prose and verse, and ﬁnally wrote it
in prose as it appears here.

The American publishers Longmans wanted to print and copyright its
own edition of this title, but the US International Copyright Act of 1891
required two Library of Congress deposits printed in the US and
submitted no later than publication elsewhere. Because of its British
editio princeps status, Kelmscott’s promise to subscribers and a
comparable no-prior-publication rule in Britain, both houses arranged
for simultaneous publication.

The designs for the initial words were started by Morris but completed
by R. Catterson-Smith. Sydney Cockerell’s diary describes the dying
Morris’ futile attempt to draw: he “only just managed to black in the
spaces, and just rough in the word.”


Sire Degrevaunt
Dated 14 March, Issued 12 November 1897

This title forms a series together with Syr Perecyvelle of Gales and Syr
Ysambrace. They were reprinted from the Camden Society’s 1844
which Morris had read while at Oxford. This story had long been
popular among Morris’ friends. Subjects from this book were painted
prior to its publication by Edward Burne-Jones on the walls of The Red
House, Upton, Bexley Heath.


Syr Ysambrace
Dated 14 March, Issued 12 November 1897

This is the ﬁnal title in a series together with Syr Perecyvelle of Gales and
Sire Degrevaunt. They were reprinted from the Camden Society’s 1844
which Morris had read while at Oxford.


Some German Woodcuts of the
Fifteenth Century
Dated 15 December 1897, Issued 6 January 1898
Edited by Sydney J. Cockerell
Large quarto, quarter-Holland cloth binding with
blue paper on boards, Batchelor Perch paper, Golden type

William Morris originally hired the twenty-four year old Sydney
Cockerell to catalog his library on a part time basis. Morris envisioned
an illustrated catalog of his collection of manuscripts and incunabula.

Morris biographer Fiona MacCarthy writes that Cockerell “soon made
himself indispensable” and was ultimately made Press Secretary.
Although she found him “ambitious and manipulative,” the
meticulously detailed diary entries and scores of records left by this
“systematic hoarder” are invaluable.

Upon his deathbed in 1896, Morris asked Cockerell to continue the
Kelmscott Press. Cockerell was “in favor of it ceasing – as otherwise it
would ﬁzzle out by degree.” It took one year and a half to complete all
projects and close the Press.

As the illustrated catalog would have been too expensive to produce,
Cockerell published this volume instead. Morris had already selected a
representative series of 29 reproductions; the other six were chosen for a
Bibliographica article. The process blocks, prepared by Walker & Boutall,
are all the same size as the originals. Part of Morris’ article appears as
the book’s introduction.


William Morris
The Story of Sigurd the Volsung
and the Fall of Niblungs
Edited by Sydney J. Cockerell
Small folio, vellum binding, Batchelor Apple paper, Chaucer type

The two borders used in this book were among the last Morris
designed. In his 1959 catalog, Philip C. Duschnes claims “Morris
considered this literary work his masterpiece by which he would be best
remembered.” According to Morris scholar Eugene LeMire, however,
“the public reception of his book did not match his own estimate of it.”

Edward Burne-Jones only agreed to illustrate the book to please Morris.
He wrote that he “shan’t like doing it so much as Chaucer” because of
the scenery. Upon Morris’ death, they abandoned plans for a fully
illustrated folio.


William Morris
The Sundering Flood

This was the last romance by William Morris. He started it in 1894 and
completed it from his deathbed in September of 1896 by dictating the
ﬁnal words to his daughter May Morris. She oversaw the book’s
publication after his passing.


William Morris
Love is Enough, or the
Freeing of Pharamond: A Morality
Dated 11 December 1897, Issued 24 March 1898

Love is Enough was, as scholar Eugene LeMire puts it, “never popular.”
The illustration by Edward Burne-Jones which appears on the ﬁnal page
was not created for this edition, one of only two tri-colored books by
Kelmscott. It was created as a frontispiece for an illustrated version
which Morris had previously abandoned.


A Note by William Morris on His
Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press
Dated 4, Issued 24 March 1898
Octavo, quarter-Holland cloth binding with blue
paper on boards, Batchelor Flower (2) paper,
Golden, Troy and Chaucer types

The introductory essay by Morris was originally written for scholar-
collector Carl Edelheim of Philadelphia, who used it for a lecture to the
Philobiblon Club of Philadelphia and who published it in Modern Art in
the Winter of 1896.

Press Secretary Sydney Cockerell wrote his notes on the Kelmscott Press
books between 20 October and early December 1897. Although
Cockerell kept diligent records, there are some errors in his list.
Researchers are instead directed towards William S. Peterson’s
deﬁnitive bibliography on the Kelmscott Press.


Exhibit Tags: Kelmscott Press Collection, Cleveland Museum of Art Ingalls Library

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (19)

Similar to Exhibit Tags: Kelmscott Press Collection, Cleveland Museum of Art Ingalls Library

Similar to Exhibit Tags: Kelmscott Press Collection, Cleveland Museum of Art Ingalls Library (20)

More from Robin M. Katz

More from Robin M. Katz (12)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Exhibit Tags: Kelmscott Press Collection, Cleveland Museum of Art Ingalls Library

Editor's Notes