KELMSCOTT PRESS – CHAUCER, Geoffrey (c.1340s-1500). The works ... now newly imprinted. Edited by F.S. Ellis. Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1896.

"The finest book since Gutenberg" (Franklin). Limited edition, one of 425 copies on paper of a total edition of 438. The supreme achievement of the forty-year artistic collaboration between William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, and of the Kelmscott Press: "the final chapter of co-operation; the venture in which their particular talents are combined for the last time, and to spectacular effect" (Robinson). Earliest plans for the work date to 1891 and the book was announced to Kelmscott Press subscribers in December, however the actual printing of the book did not begin until August 1894, and was only issued to subscribers in June 1896. Franklin Private Presses p.192; Peterson A40; Robinson, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and the Kelmscott Chaucer; Sparling 40.

Folio (420 x 286mm). Chaucer and Troy types, printed in black and red. Woodcut title, borders and initials by C.E. Keates, W.H. Hooper and W. Spielmeyer after William Morris, 87 woodcut illustrations by W.H. Hooper after Edward Burne-Jones (a couple leaves with some light spotting at edges, a few leaves with faint offsetting). Red morocco by Zaehnsdorf, red morocco gilt doublures (some surface wear at hinges, corners, with area of loss on lower spine); slipcase.