The Last Book Printed at the Kelmscott Press KELMSCOTT PRESS. MORRIS, William. A Note by William Morris on His Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press. Together with a Short Description of the Press by S.C. Cockerell, & an Annotated List of the Books Printed Thereat. Hammersmith: Sold by the Trustees of the late William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, 1898. Full Description:
Note by William Morris on His Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press. Together with a Short Description of the Press by S.C. Cockerell, & an Annotated List of the Books Printed Thereat.
Hammersmith: Sold by the Trustees of the late William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, 1898.
Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1898].
One of 525 paper copies. Octavo (8 1/8 x 5 3/4 inches; 206 x 145 mm. [4], 70, [1, colophon], [1, blank] pp. Printed in red and black in Golden type, with five pages in Troy and Chaucer types. Decorative woodcut borders and initials. Wood-engraved frontispiece, and rejected ornaments for Love Is Enough. Bound with the often missing erratum slip, after title-page.
Original holland-backed blue paper boards. Text of title-page printed in black on front cover. All edges uncut. Some very minor sunning to boards. Light foxing to endpapers. Previous owner's book plate to front pastedown. Overall about fine.
The last book printed at the Kelmscott Press. The frontispiece, designed by Edward Burne-Jones, was engraved by William Morris for a projected edition of The Earthly Paradise in the 1860s and was “touched up” by Robert Catterson-Smith (see Peterson).
Provenance: With bookplate 'From the Library of John Charrington, The Grange, Shenley' inscribed in ink "To Margaret Lenox February 1917" at foot of front pastedown. John Charrington, Honorary Keeper of Prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge from 1909 until his death in 1939. He had a large collection of prints and a significant library including an important collection of private press books. Penciled initials of Tom Handford Parker on front free endpaper and A.L.S. from him dated 1949 on notepaper from a house called Kelmscott presenting the book to Judge Batt and with annotated newspaper cutting loosely inserted.
Clark Library, Kelmscott and Doves, pp. 62-63. Peterson A53. Ransom, Private Presses, p. 331, no. 53. Sparling 53. Tomkinson, pp. 121-124, no. 53.
HBS 69429.
$4,500.
Price: $4,500.00
Item #69429