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¶ "I began printing books with the hope of producing some which would have a definite claim to beauty, while at the same time they should be easy to read and should not dazzle the eye, or trouble the intellect of the reader by eccentricity of form in the letters. I have always been a great admirer of the calligraphy of the Middle Ages, and of the earlier printing which took its place." — William Morris
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Category Archives: Miscellaneous
Basilisk facsimile
In the Maggs Bros. catalogue for London’s Rare Book Fair (October 2021) is a copy of the Basilisk Press facsimile (1974) of the Chaucer with an interesting provenance: “This copy was presented by Charlene Garry, the founder of the Basilisk … Continue reading
The Leighton ledgers
Some years ago, while searching for information about the Kelmscott Chaucer, we went through the ledgers of John and James Leighton Ltd. (London bookbinders and booksellers) to record copies of the book that had been bound by that firm. There … Continue reading
A Chaucer leaf book
Phillip J. Pirages (fine book and manuscript dealer, McMinnville, Oregon) has recently published a Chaucer leaf book entitled Letters from the 15th Century: On the Origins of the Kelmscott Chaucer Typeface: “This unique leaf book combines three elements – a … Continue reading
Lost & Found
We’ve just learned that in 2018 John Windle (antiquarian book dealer, San Francisco) published a booklet entitled Lost & Found: Unpublished Articles on Morris and the Kelmscott Chaucer: “Limited to 45 copies for sale (80 copies were reserved for private … Continue reading
Discovery of a sales receipt
Brian Johnson, son of Folger Johnson of Portland, Oregon [see this earlier post], has found the sales receipt for his father’s copy of the Chaucer from Philip C. Duschnes, 5 May 1945, for $950 (probably Census 4.400 and 4.412).
Posted in Miscellaneous, Private collections
Tagged Duschnes, fine printing, Geoffrey Chaucer, Kelmscott Press, William Morris
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A portrait of Robert Catterson-Smith
Tom Riedlinger has recently sent us a scan of this portrait of Robert Catterson-Smith, a pastel painting by T. Murray Bernard Bladon in about 1920. It was for many years owned by the Central School of Arts and Crafts in … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous
Tagged Emery Walker, fine printing, Geoffrey Chaucer, Kelmscott Press, Robert Catterson-Smith, William Morris
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William Harcourt Hooper
Tom Riedlinger has very kindly sent us this photograph and brief obituary of W. H. Hooper, who was Morris’s chief wood-engraver; they appeared in the Illustrated London News, 2 March 1912, p. 314. This is the text accompanying the photo: … Continue reading
Reference to one of the vellum copies
The following article contains a reference to item 1.10 in our Census, a vellum copy bound by Kurt Londenberg, presently in a private collection in Switzerland: “Ala Londenberg: Nachträge zum Werkverzeichnis Kurt Londenberg.” Philobiblon, 42.1 (March 1998): 26–45, no. 23.
Yeats copy: clipping
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 … Continue reading
The Kelmscott Chaucer illustrations
Robert Simola, on his blog Chaucer Editions: An Incomplete Collection of Illustrated editions of Chaucer’s Works, includes the Kelmscott Chaucer, with a list of all the known facsimile editions of it and 153 images of pages.
The Kelmscott Chaucer 