By Geoffrey Chaucer. A facsimile of The Kelmscott Chaucer. Introduction by John T Winterrich. Illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones
Published by World Publishing Company, New York. (1958). Bound by Glenn Malkin (2022)
This is a fabulous and high quality 1950’s facsimile copy of William Morris’ famous Kelmscott Chaucer. The inspiration for the binding of this magnificent volume comes from Chaucer’s best-known work: The Canterbury Tales. The arrow-like panels incorporated into the design all have different decorative techniques or designs. There are twenty-four such panels and these represent the twenty-four different stories contained in the Canterbury Tales, as each of the story-tellers are on their pilgrimage to Canterbury, the shining goal at the centre of the design.
The book is sewn onto six linen tapes, the top edge is decorated with sprinkled acrylic and gold leaf, the other two edges left raw as originally published. There are hand-sewn double silk endbands. The binding is in full midnight blue goat leather with onlaid panels of fair goat decorated with multiple techniques including airbrushing, carbon tooling, impressed designs and sprinkling. Gold leaf lines are tooled between the panels. The central inlaid circular panel is sprinkled with gold leaf. All onlays were back-pared. The doublures are full edge-to-edge Pentland goat leather extended to form the leather joints. The endpapers are genuine suede. The volume is presented in a bespoke oak box, lined with suede and with a leather title panel to the lid. The lid also incorporates a motif taken from the original paper dust-wrapper of this edition of the book