Hammersmith (London, England) -- Imprints; Kelmscott Press; Printing -- Great Britain -- History
Mr. Morris began designing his first folio border on Feb. 1, 1893, but
was dissatisfied with the design and did not finish it. Three days later
he began the vine border for the first page, and finished it in about a
week, together with the initial word 'Whan,' the two lines of heading,
and the frame for the first picture, and Mr. Hooper engraved the whole
of these on one block. The first picture was engraved at about the same
time. A specimen of the first page (differing slightly from the same
page as it appears in the book) was shown at the Arts and Crafts
Exhibition in October and November, 1893, and was issued to a few
leading booksellers, but it was not until August 8, 1894, that the first
sheet was printed at 14, Upper Mall. On Jan. 8, 1895, another press was
started at 21, Upper Mall, and from that time two presses were almost
exclusively at work on the Chaucer. By Sept. 10 the last page of The
Romaunt of the Rose was printed. In the middle of Feb., 1896, Mr.
Morris began designing the title. It was finished on the 27th of the
same month and engraved by Mr. Hooper in March. On May 8, a year and
nine months after the printing of the first sheet, the book was
completed. On June 2 the first two copies were delivered to Sir Edward
Burne-Jones and Mr. Morris. Mr. Morris's copy is now at Exeter College,
Oxford, with other books printed at the Kelmscott Press.
Besides the eighty-seven illustrations designed by Sir Edward
Burne-Jones, and engraved by W. H. Hooper, the Chaucer contains a
woodcut title, fourteen large borders, eighteen different frames round
the illustrations, and twenty-six large initial words designed for the
book by William Morris. Many of these were engraved by C. E. Keates, and
others by W. H. Hooper and W. Spielmeyer.
In Feb., 1896, a notice was issued respecting special bindings, of which
Mr. Morris intended to design four. Two of these were to have been
executed under Mr. Cobden-Sanderson's direction at the Doves Bindery,
and two by Messrs. J. & J. Leighton. But the only design that he was
able to complete was for a full white pigskin binding, which has now
been carried out at the Doves Bindery on forty-eight copies, including
two on vellum.
41. THE EARTHLY PARADISE. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. VOLUME I. PROLOGUE: THE
WANDERERS. MARCH: ATALANTA'S RACE. THE MAN BORN TO BE KING. Medium 4to.
Golden type. In black and red. Borders 27a, 27, 28a, and 28, and woodcut
title. 225 on paper at thirty shillings, 6 on vellum at seven guineas.
Dated May 7, issued July 24, 1896. Published by William Morris. Bound in
limp vellum.
This was the first book printed on the paper with the apple watermark.
The seven other volumes followed it at intervals of a few months. None
of the ten borders used in The Earthly Paradise appear in any other
book. The four different half-borders round the poems to the months are
also not used elsewhere. The first border was designed in June, 1895.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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