Chaucer Press (23 results)

mass_market. Condition: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!.

LeatherBound. Condition: New. LeatherBound edition. Condition: New. Reprinted from 1902 edition. Leather Binding on Spine and Corners with Golden leaf printing on spine. Bound in genuine leather with Satin ribbon page markers and Spine with raised gilt bands. A perfect gift for your loved ones. NO changes have been made to the original text. This is NOT a retyped or an ocr'd reprint. Illustrations, Index, if any, are included in black and white. Each page is checked manually before printing. As this print on demand book is reprinted from a very old book, there could be some missing or flawed pages, but we always try to make the book as complete as possible. Fold-outs, if any, are not part of the book. If the original book was published in multiple volumes then this reprint is of only one volume, not the whole set. Sewing binding for longer life, where the book block is actually sewn (smythe sewn/section sewn) with thread before binding which results in a more durable type of binding. Pages: 62 Language: English.

LeatherBound. Condition: New. Leather Binding on Spine and Corners with Golden leaf printing on spine. Bound in genuine leather with Satin ribbon page markers and Spine with raised gilt bands. A perfect gift for your loved ones. Reprinted from 1904 edition. NO changes have been made to the original text. This is NOT a retyped or an ocr'd reprint. Illustrations, Index, if any, are included in black and white. Each page is checked manually before printing. As this print on demand book is reprinted from a very old book, there could be some missing or flawed pages, but we always try to make the book as complete as possible. Fold-outs, if any, are not part of the book. If the original book was published in multiple volumes then this reprint is of only one volume, not the whole set and contains approximately 42 pages. IF YOU WISH TO ORDER PARTICULAR VOLUME OR ALL THE VOLUMES YOU CAN CONTACT US. Resized as per current standards. Sewing binding for longer life, where the book block is actually sewn (smythe sewn/section sewn) with thread before binding which results in a more durable type of binding. Language: English.

LeatherBound. Condition: New. LeatherBound edition. Condition: New. Reprinted from 1901 edition. Leather Binding on Spine and Corners with Golden leaf printing on spine. Bound in genuine leather with Satin ribbon page markers and Spine with raised gilt bands. A perfect gift for your loved ones. NO changes have been made to the original text. This is NOT a retyped or an ocr'd reprint. Illustrations, Index, if any, are included in black and white. Each page is checked manually before printing. As this print on demand book is reprinted from a very old book, there could be some missing or flawed pages, but we always try to make the book as complete as possible. Fold-outs, if any, are not part of the book. If the original book was published in multiple volumes then this reprint is of only one volume, not the whole set. Sewing binding for longer life, where the book block is actually sewn (smythe sewn/section sewn) with thread before binding which results in a more durable type of binding. Pages: 90 Language: English.

LeatherBound. Condition: New. LeatherBound edition. Condition: New. Reprinted from 1896 edition. Leather Binding on Spine and Corners with Golden leaf printing on spine. Bound in genuine leather with Satin ribbon page markers and Spine with raised gilt bands. A perfect gift for your loved ones. NO changes have been made to the original text. This is NOT a retyped or an ocr'd reprint. Illustrations, Index, if any, are included in black and white. Each page is checked manually before printing. As this print on demand book is reprinted from a very old book, there could be some missing or flawed pages, but we always try to make the book as complete as possible. Fold-outs, if any, are not part of the book. If the original book was published in multiple volumes then this reprint is of only one volume, not the whole set. Sewing binding for longer life, where the book block is actually sewn (smythe sewn/section sewn) with thread before binding which results in a more durable type of binding. Pages: 568 Language: English.

Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 48 pages. 8.75x5.75x0.11 inches. This item is printed on demand.

Condition: Fine. 42 cm, 4 pages. Facsimile from the Kemscott Chaucer, together with prospectus, from the first year of the house.

Printed by Elfriede Martha Abbe --sculptor, wood engraver and illustrator -- at her press in Manchester Center. One of 180 copies signed by Elfriede Abbe, of which this is #76. In black cloth with a gold decorative stamp, backed in gold silk with a foil label to the spine. Illustrated throughout with woodcut illustrations, and additional decorative elements in gold, black and grey. With prospectus laid in, as well as Elfriede Abbe's curriculum vitae. A sumptuous production.

Folio, (423x289mm). [2]p. Letterpress printed in black in the Chaucer type on handmade laid paper with the shoulder-title printed in red. Slightly creased. Pages 507-8 of Liber III from what is generally regarded as the ultimate achievement of William Morris' Kelmscott Press. Printed with the Chaucer type, which was a recut smaller version of the black-letter influenced Troy type, in a deep-black ink that was specially made for Morris in Germany. An uncommon opportunity to obtain an example of what ranks as one of the most estimable books of any era of printing history. Please note that the advised postage is based on an average book, if possible the postage will be reduced to the correct amount and you will be notified by email.

Folio Fine copy in very slightly soiled, price-clipped dust-wrapper Original blindstamped cloth, spine lettered in gilt.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Limited Edition. 12mo, 45 pages, the upper cover blindstamped with a rose motif and the words "Soul is Form", spine lettered in gilt, stiff vellum, Ex libris Arthur E. Chapman. Covers soiled, tissue guards laid in to protect the illustrations. C.R. Ashbee and his Essex House Press inherited the principles and many of the personnel of The Kelmscott Press. Each paragraph begins with an ornamental letter drawn and coloured in by Edith Harwood. [Tomkinson p.73, 29th book of the press; Ransom p. 266]. Copy numberd 125 of only 165 copies printed on vellum. The vellum, paper and inks are the same as used by Morris, and some of the same craftsmen worked for Essex House Press. The 6th book in the Great Poet Series. The Floure and the Leafe is an anonymous Middle English allegorical poem which was mistakenly attributed to Chaucer, but its author - possibly a woman - remains unknown. Frontispiece and 2 woodcut plates, 85 historiated initials.

154 x 112 mm. (6 x 4 1/2"). xxv, [3], 158 pp., [1] leaf (imprint). Edited and annotated by Walter William Skeat. Charming contemporary tan pigskin, inlaid and gilt in the Arts & Crafts style, covers with delicate inlaid green morocco frame with inlaid cinquefoil flowers of honey brown morocco at corners and at center of vertical sides, this enclosing a central panel with two concentric inlaid four-lobed ornaments of green morocco, these and the outer frame with repeating gilt cinquefoils decorating the morocco, at center a wreath of 10 inlaid brown cinquefoils, the flowers connected by garlands of gilt dots, beads, and leaves, similar garlands draping from the flowers at corners and sides of outer frame, raised bands, spine compartments framed by gilt dots and circlets, with gilt cinquefoils at corners, two panels with gilt lettering, turns-ins framed by four gilt rules punctuated with gilt flowers, all edges gilt. Woodcut strapwork crest of The King's Classics on half title, engraved frontispiece of Griselda from "The Clerk's Tale." Binder's blank at front with ink presentation inscription dated January 1921. āSpine and edges of boards slightly darkened, otherwise fine, with few signs of use. This is a volume inspired by the Arts & Crafts Movement, both inside and out. The De La More Press was founded by Alexander Moring in 1895, and, while not in the first rank with Ashendene, Kelmscott, and Doves, it nevertheless produced books of very respectable quality. The text here was published as part of the De La More King's Classics Series, which included a seven-volume edition of Chaucer done into modern English by Walter William Skeat (1835-1912), a leading expert on Early English and a prolific editor. Professor Skeat has given us five of Chaucer's tales--the "Prioress's Tale," the "Pardoner's Tale," the "Clerk's Tale" of Patient Griselda, the "Nun's Tale," and the "Tale of the Canon's Yeoman"--done into modern English iambic hexameter rhymed couplets that are purposefully archaic but very readable. According to DNB, "All Skeat's vast output is distinguished by accuracy in matter of fact, wide learning, and humanity, and most of it he produced without prospect of reward, out of devotion to his subject." Of greater interest here--because it is both unique and an interesting expression of the period--is the animated binding. Its innovative and ambitious design as well as its skillful execution reflect the work of a talented amateur, perhaps a student at one of the schools of Arts & Crafts that arose from the movement. It is not Sangorski & Sutcliffe, but it has very considerable charm.

Basilisk Press facsimile edition. One of 515 copies, this unnumbered. 1 Volume, folio, 30 x 42.5cm, 554pp. 87 Woodcut illustrations after designs by Edward Burne-Jones and recut for this edition, printed in black and red in Chaucer and Troy types. Original quarter brown calf over tan cloth boards, spine lettered and ruled in blind with 6 compartments. Basilisk Press, London. Very good, spine soiled but boards clean and internally fine. Loose bifolia inserted with pages 545 and 546 printed, the other two pages blank. This copy was presented by Charlene Garry, the founder of the Basilisk Press, to the printer of the edition, Bernard Roberts of the John Roberts Press. Roberts held something of an aversion to the Morris patterned cloth used to bind the regular edition and desired something decidedly more modest; instead, he requested his copy bound in plain brown quarter calf with tan cloth boards, an austere style which owed more to the Kelmscott bindings of cloth and paper than the luxurious pigskin copies of the Chaucer. It was this same copy which the Folio Society used to create their facsimile in 2002.

FROM A COPY OF AN EDITION OF 425. 425 x 289 mm. (16 3/4 x 11 3/8"). pp. 439-42. Untrimmed, unsewn leaves that were never permanently bound, attractively matted. WITH WOODCUT INITIAL AND BORDERS DESIGNED BY WILLIAM MORRIS, THE WOOD-ENGRAVED ILLUSTRATIONS BY EDWARD BURNE-JONES. āIN VERY FINE CONDITION, with only trivial imperfections. This beautiful publisher's work of art comes from the Kelmscott Chaucer, one of the great achievements in the history of printing. It comes from an incomplete copy that was apparently put to (gentle) use in the Press workshop, and that was purchased at auction having been laid into the publisher's boards but never having been bound (there are stab holes on some leaves, as here, but nothing was ever glued). William Morris had fallen in love with Chaucer's works when he and Burne-Jones were students at Oxford, and with the founding of the Kelmscott Press in 1891, Morris began plans, first announced to the public in 1892, for the Chaucer. Praise for this work--compared as a printing masterpiece to the Gutenberg Bible and Caxton's first printing of Chaucer in 1478--has never stopped coming. "Artist & the Book" says that it is "perhaps the most famous book of the modern private press movement, and the culmination of William Morris' endeavor." Ray says that the book "is not only the most important of the Kelmscott Press' productions; it is also one of the great books of the world." Yeats called the Kelmscott Chaucer "the most beautiful of all printed books." Copies in the regular publisher's boards now sell for upwards of $100,000 (and for much more in special bindings). Being a book commanding treatment as a precious object, the Kelmscott Chaucer is almost never found incomplete, and because taking apart a complete copy would constitute wanton destruction of a major cultural artifact, leaves like this--especially a bifolium (not to mention a continuous bifolium)--are quite uncommon in the marketplace.

Limited edition, number 439 of 485 copies on paper, from a total edition of 500; 4 vols, small folio (31.8 x 20 cm); wood engravings by Eric Gill, including one full-page, 29 half-page, tailpieces, initials and decorative borders, initials printed in red, blue and black; original Niger morocco-backed patterned boards by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, gilt lettering to spines, top edges gilt, others uncut, light rubbing to extremities, slight toning and soiling to boards, some spotting and fading to spines (as always); an attractive set. One of the major titles of the Golden Cockerel Press and an extraordinary collaboration between the press director and book designer Robert Gibbings (1889-1958) and artist Eric Gill (1882-1940). Printing the Canterbury Tales dominated work at the press for two and a half years, and relatively few other books were printed during that period. However, despite some critics deeming Gill's illustrations risqué and inappropriate, the book was a considerable critical and financial success and grossed £14,000. Chanticleer 63; Evan Gill 281.

GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS; GILL, Eric|SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE (illustrator). With Wood Engravings by Eric Gill [GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS]. CHAUCER, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. With wood engravings by Eric Gill. Waltham Saint Lawrence in Berkshire: Printed and published at the Golden Cockerel Press, 1929-1931. One of 485 numbered copies on Batchelor handmade paper, out of a total edition of 500 copies. Stated "File Copy" on colophon page, in lieu of a limitation number. Four folio volumes (12 x 7 1/2 inches; 307 x 190 mm). One full-page illustration, twenty-nine half-page illustrations, 269 decorative borders, tail-pieces, and line-fillers, and sixty-one initial letters (printed in black, red, or blue), all engraved on wood by Eric Gill. Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in quarter niger morocco over patterned boards. Gilt-lettered spine with raised bands. Top edge gilt, others uncut. Spines lightly sunned to different degrees. A few very tiny chips to spines. Tips slightly bumped and with some rubbing. Housed in a morocco-tipped cloth slipcase. Overall a handsome and desirable set which shows very well and the text is very clean. "Most of the borders are leaf and stem, but among the leaves, hiding or beckoning, climbing or leaning out, are girls and men, kings and boys, priests and nuns who take part or seem to be commenting upon the stories.the pattern continues, affectionate and cheeky, erotic, enjoyable and relevant, decorative and explanatory, a balance of taste and eye. Borders are repeated, sometimes in new combinations. To start a new tale we have more elaborate and descriptive work with a red or blue initial letter.There they are, the characters in the tale, with their stage scenery.One other quality in these borders should be noticedā"their mannerism, the distortion of human figures sometimes so that they almost share the forms of leaf and stemā"and sometimes grow from them. It is another, rather touching aspect of Gill's idea and all these manners work towards a single artā"the poetry, people, leaves, decoration and explanation. Author, artist and printer have shared one concept and expressed it" (Colin Franklin, The Private Presses, pp. 143-144). Chanticleer 63. Gill 281. HBS 68192. $10,000.

318 x 203 mm. (12 1/2 x 8"). xi, [i], 309, [1] pp., [2] (blank and colophon) leaves.Edited by Arundell Del Re. Publisher's tan-morocco-backed patterned paper boards by Sangorski & Sutcliffe (stamp-signed on front pastedown), raised bands, gilt titling to spine panel, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. In the original gray cardboard slipcase with printed title on the back (head and tail of back reinforced with tape). Pictorial woodcut borders to fore margins of every text page and FIVE FULL-PAGE WOOD ENGRAVINGS, all BY ERIC GILL. Section title pages with red or blue lettering. Occasional text initials in red or blue. Chanticleer 50; Gill 279; Cave & Manson, pp. 50 ff.; Ransom, p. 297. āA breath of rubbing to corners, trivial offsetting to free endpapers from binder's glue on turn-ins, but AN OUTSTANDING COPY with no signs of use inside or out. This is the finest copy we've ever offered (and the equal to any we've seen) of one of the finest books of the private press movement. The Golden Cockerel "Troilus" represents an impressive combination of bookmaking materials, typography, illustration, and printing skill. As Cave & Manson says, the prospectus for this work invited a public to anticipate "'one of the most important productions of its kind since the days of the Kelmscott press.'" When the work appeared, "it showed this was a claim to be taken seriously. Gill produced some of his finest engravings for the book. The full-page illustrations showed his work at its best." The whimsical illustrated borders were the most widely discussed feature of the volume; the public was divided about them, as some thought them too naughty, but Gill and Gibbings were convinced of their value, and they were used again with great success in the Golden Cockerel "Canterbury Tales." Though the "Troilus" is generally considered to be the second most important book from the Press, its value is generally as high as any Golden Cockerel item, no doubt because it was issued in a small press run--225 copies, as compared to 500 for the "Four Gospels," the magnum opus of the Press. The completed volume's modest print run sold out very quickly, and the "purchasers' pleasure was increased by seeing the book rapidly appreciate in value." (Cave & Manson) It has been a very popular book ever since. Our volume comes from the superb collection of fine and private press books assembled by Hamburg collector Barbara Achilles (d. 2010). She requested that her books be returned to the marketplace after her death, so that other bibliophiles could have the pleasure of acquiring and enjoying them; Her mother and fellow collector Edith Achilles honored her request, and the library was dispersed. No. 139 OF 225 NUMBERED COPIES on paper (and six on vellum).

318 x 197 mm. (12 1/2 x 7 3/4"). Four volumes. Original Niger morocco-backed patterned paper boards by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, raised bands, gilt titling, top edges gilt, others untrimmed. The four volumes housed in two burnt orange morocco-backed cloth clamshell boxes with gilt lettering on the backs. Red and blue initials, ONE FULL-PAGE AND EIGHT HALF-PAGE WOOD ENGRAVINGS, AND 267 VERY PLEASING WOOD-ENGRAVED BORDERS (frequently inhabited) AND TAILPIECES BY ERIC GILL (each border design repeated two to five times, so that nearly every page is thus adorned). Chanticleer 63; Gill 281. āSpines softly sunned--though uncharacteristically very minor and uniform in the fading; otherwise faultless. AN EXEMPLARY COPY, PRISTINE INTERNALLY. This is as fine a copy as one could hope to find of one of the best examples in modern fine press work of the successful collaboration of text, decoration, and typography. With the "Four Gospels" of 1931 and "Troilus and Criseyde" of 1927, it is one of the three greatest Golden Cockerel Press books, and according to Cave & Mason, its "naughty, amusing" engravings make it one of the five "foremost English illustrated books of the 20th century." It was produced at the zenith of the decade-long collaboration between Golden Cockerel Press director and book designer Robert Gibbings (1889-1958) and artist Eric Gill (1882-1940) which, in the words of Gill biographer Fiona McCarthy, "resulted in some of the classic examples of specialist book production of that period," works that "have a forcefulness and clarity which still excites one." While some squeamish critics deemed Gill's racy engravings inappropriate, the bawdy Chaucer would no doubt have been delighted with them and found them most apt. Colin Franklin astutely observed that the "Gill/Gibbings version [of 'Canterbury Tales'] tackled the problems of illustrating Chaucer IN ALL HIS MOODS. [emphasis in original]." Cave & Mason report that its publication was "regarded as a literary event" and was widely reported and well received by the press. The book was very profitable, grossing some £14,000 for the Press. It is to be expected that a major production from a major press like the Golden Cockerel "Tales" would in many cases be very well treated by owners down through the years, but copies now are almost never found in the immaculate condition seen here. No. 344 OF 485 COPIES on paper (and 15 on vellum).

Limited edition, one of 425 copies on paper, from a total edition of 438; folio (42.2 x 28.8 cm); Chaucer type, headings to longer poems in Troy type, headings, incipits and explicits printed in red, 87 woodcut illustrations designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, redrawn in ink by R. Catterson-Smith and cut in wood by W. H. Hooper, woodcut title-page, 14 large borders, ornamental woodcut title, 18 different frames around illustrations, 26 19-line initial words, printer's ornaments, printer's device, all designed by William Morris and cut in wood by Hooper, C. E. Keates and W. Spielmeyer, numerous 10-line and smaller initial capitals; original holland-backed blue boards, printed paper label to spine, edges uncut, expert refurbishment to spine label and small areas of board edges, some wear to spine ends, else near-fine in clean, well-preserved, original condition; housed in red quarter morocco folding case. One of 425 copies on paper, from a total edition of 438, in the original binding. The most ambitious and magnificent book of the Press, the Kelmscott Chaucer was four years in the making. Morris designed the watermark for the paper, which was copied from an Italian incunable in Morris' collection and made entirely of linen by Batchelor. It took several requests before Clarendon Press granted permission to use Skeat's new edition of Chaucer. The total edition comprised 438 copies: 425 on paper and 13 on vellum, with 50 of these bound in pigskin by the Doves Bindery. Burne-Jones devoted all his Sundays for almost three years to the work, and Morris came to talk with him as he drew. As the artist worked he increased the number of proposed illustrations from 48 to 60 to 72 to 87, and Morris accepted each change. The process of adapting the drawings to the woodblock, and engraving them, was entrusted to W. H. Hooper and R. Catterson-Smith, with Burne-Jones closely supervising every detail. A work described as 'perfect. both in design and in the quality of the printing. the last and the most magnificent, the Kelmscott Chaucer' (PMM, p.223). 'The finest book ever printed - if W. M. had done nothing else it would be enough.' (Burne-Jones). The Artist and the Book 45; Franklin Private Presses p.192; Needham, William Morris and the Art of the Book 101C; Peterson, Bibliography A40; Peterson, The Kelmscott Chaucer: A Census (this copy unrecorded).

One of 425 copies of a total edition of 438. With 87 wood-engravings designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, cut by W.H. Hooper after drawings by Robert Catterson-Smith, superb wood-engraved title page, fourteen very fine large borders, eighteen different woodcut frames around the illustrations, twenty-six nineteen line woodcut initial letters, and numerous initials, decorative woodcut printer's device all designed by William Morris and cut by C.E. Keates, Hooper and W. Spelmeyer, with shoulder and side titles. Printed in red and black in Chaucer type, double column, headings to the longer poems in Troy type. Folio (425 x 289 mm), printer's original Holand linen-backed blue paper boards, original paper label on the spine lettered in black. iv, 554 pp. An especially fine and handsome copy, the text is pristine, crisp, fresh and bright, the binding in full original state and in excellent condition, the linen on these bindings is typically heavily mellowed but this copy is virtually free of that mellowing, the original blue paper covered boards with just a little rubbing or wear at the corners only, a splendid copy indeed. A VERY FINE AND HANDSOME COPY OF WHAT IS CONSIDERED TO BE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PRINTED BOOK IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The Kelmscott Chaucer is "the most famous book of the modern private press movement, and the culmination of William Morris's endeavor" (The Artist and the Book). "[F]rom first appearance, the Chaucer gained a name as the finest book since Gutenberg. It has held its place near the head of the polls ever since. The terms which critics used in the eighteen-nineties to welcome it simply show us what an impression Morris's printing made upon late Victorian bookmen" (Colin Franklin, The Private Presses, p. 43). Evidence of the esteem in which the book has been held lies in the fact that after the Second World War, during the rebuilding of Japan and its libraries, a copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer was the first book presented to the Japanese people by the British Government on behalf of the English nation. The Kelmscott Press produced forty-eight books in its brief life. Morris had toyed with the idea of a Shakespeare in three folio volumes; a suggestion for a King James version of the Bible was in his pending file; and preliminary work had begun on editions of Froissart and Malory, both of which would have formed a triumvirate with the Chaucer. But on October 3, 1896, Morris died, and for all intents and purposes the Kelmscott Press died with him, the Froissart and Malory unfinished. The Chaucer, regretfully, remained the only "titan" among Kelmscott books. Morris dedicated his life to poetry and the decorative arts, but he did not exhibit an active interest in the design and production of books until he was fifty-five years old. He died eight years later, but in that brief fragment of time he established a standard and prestige that still make him one of the most powerful and pervasive influences in book design in the English-speaking, English-reading world.