Chaucer, Geoffrey (2002) ‘The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer’, Folio Society limited edition

Geoffrey Chaucer (2002) The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer published by the Folio Society in 2002 as a facsimile limited edition of the famous ‘Kelmscott Chaucer’. Limitation number 467 out of 1,000.

Condition: the book is in very fine condition with no faults whatsoever. The clamshell case displays light shelf wear only. This is unavoidable as the book itself weighs over 8kg. After all the clamshell case is there to protect the book and to absorb bumps in transit and when handling.

Production details according to the publisher:

– The paper, Oxenford twin-wire laid was specially made at James Cropper Mill at Burneside in Cumbria and supplied by John Purcell Paper.

– The binding design was redrawn by David Eccles from a copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer bound by T. J. Cobden-Sandersen at the Doves Bindery in 1900.

– The binding executed by Smith Settle at Otley, Yorkshire, in full Niger goatskin, with handmade laid endpapers from the Fabriano Mill, Italy.

– Top edge gilt and gilt decoration to the front cover and spine.

– Housed in its original blue folding box

– Included is a pamphlet with an essay on The Kelmscott Chaucer by William S. Peterson, taken from The Kelmscott Press: A History of William Morris’s Typographical Adventure (Oxford University Press, 1991).

The original of The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer represented the culmination of Morris’s lifelong search for the Ideal Book; it was the kind of book that he and Burne-Jones dreamed of creating when they were still undergraduates and which they attempted to produce unsuccessfully during the 1860s and 1870s. Instead it came at the end of Morris’s life, when he was able to pour into this single volume all bibliophilic passion and his unmatched skill as a designer of ornaments. Even those who find the pages too heavy or congested feel compelled to pay tribute to the Chaucer as one of the truly great books of the world. Yeats declared it to be ‘the most beautiful of all printed books’. Only 425 copies of the Kelmscott Chaucer were printed, hence there is no surprise that a small number of facsimiles have been produced to satisfy the continuing demand for this legendary work. Head and shoulders above the rest is the Basilisk Press edition of 1975. This was printed at the John Roberts Press from line blocks commissioned as a perfect match to the original, it is such an astonishing recreation that even experts can have difficulty distinguishing one from the other. It was due to the great generosity of Mr Bernard Roberts, proprietor of the John Roberts Press at that time, that the Folio Society facsimilie came into being. Mr Roberts generously loaned his own copy to be disbound and photographed for the printing of this edition. This is a truly magnificent book that goes a long way towards recreating the sense that one might have felt when encountering Morris’s original Kelmscott Chaucer.

Long sold out from the Folio Society.