Hodson was a close friend of William Morris and an enthusiastic admirer of the Kelmscott Press, owning both a vellum and a paper copy of each of the Kelmscott publications whenever possible. His vellum copy of the Chaucer was sold in the 1906 sale (now at Cambridge University; Census 1.2), but the paper copy and other unsold Kelmscott books, including three titles on vellum, were retained by Hodson himself and, after his death in 1933, by his son and most recently by a grandchild.  This copy of the Chaucer is in “original holland-backed boards, spine discoloured, upper joint worn, vellum [sic], silk ties, uncut.” Hodson’s book label is in the book.

The estimated price was £15,000–£20,000; the book sold for £18,000 (before buyer’s premium).

A quarter-linen copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer was appraised by Stephen Massey on an episode of The Antiques Roadshow in Cincinnati on 8 April 2013. The great-great-grandfather of the present owner was the original owner of the book.

This is not a copy we have recorded in our Census. If anyone knows who the present owner of the book is and how to contact her, or could get in touch with the owner and have her write us at swholton2@cs.com, we would be very happy.

Here is a link to a clip of the show.

In our Census (2.86) we have described how the copy of the Chaucer — now in the National Library of Ireland — came into the hands of W. B. Yeats in 1905. The clipping above, from an unidentified magazine or newspaper, does not add any new formation, but it lends a certain color.

We are grateful to Philip R. Bishop for sending it to us. It was found in Thomas Bird Mosher’s scrapbooks: see Bishop’s Mosher Press Collection.

The copy has a lightly worn quarter-linen binding and a full blue morocco folding case.  It contains bookplates of George Clinton Ward and Louise Ward Watkins, and was also owned by Miles Slocum and Julian Edison. It was previously sold by Christie’s (New York) on 20 November 1981, lot 345.

For brief biographies of Ward, Watkins, and Slocum, see Census 2.194.

In their catalogue for November 2012, no. 1, Bauman Rare Books offered for sale a copy in an elaborate Birdsall binding: the crushed red morocco front cover reproduces the Burne-Jones wood-engraving at the beginning of the Clerk’s Tale. There are also inlaid crushed morocco doublures and a custom half morocco clamshell box. The price was $130,000.

The book was sold from the catalogue.

Provenance: Grace Phillips Johnson (1877–1972). — Christie (New York), 18 November 1977, lot 191, sold for $10,000. — Duschnes, [March 1978] (sold for $15,000). — Duschnes, April 1979. — William Targ. — Roslyn Siegel Targ. —present owner.

Grace Phillips Johnson was the daughter of T. W. Phillips, a gas and oil magnate in Pennsylvania who served in Congress from 1892 to 1896. He supported a number of Christian churches and educational institutions, including Bethany College in W.Va. His daughter married a successful businessman and continued the family tradition of philanthropy, primarily to Christian institutions, both in Pennsylvania and in Florida. She was also a book collector of high spot books, including the Chaucer.

For William Targ, see Census 2.240.

Donald Heald (New York) is offering a copy of the Chaucer bound in “red morocco gilt, the covers with thin outer triple fillet gilt borders surrounding a large area of inlaid blue morocco, the onlays tooled with a wide elaborate border of interlacing strapwork”; the price is $75,000.

Here are two links to Flickr and Special Collection’s home page.

We should add that Blunt owned another copy of the Chaucer (Census 2.281), which he had bound by Leighton.