A Summary of the Principles of Socialism: Written for the Democratic Federation

Details

Date: 1884
Object Type: book
Material: paper
Catalogue number: K591c
Author: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Author: Hyndman, Henry Mayers (1842 - 1921)
Printer: The Modern Press

This pamphlet was written by William Morris and Henry Hyndman for the Social Democratic Federation, Morris also designed the title page. Morris joined the SDF at its inaugural meeting in June 1881. He had always felt uneasy about the disparity between his comfortable lifestyle and the conditions endured by most of the British working classes. In the 1880s he began working towards overthrowing the system that enabled the rich to profit from their labour, going on marches, writing articles and lecturing all over the country.

Morris and Hyndman had a strained relationship as Morris disagreed with Hyndman’s obsession with parliamentary politics to the detriment of trade union organisation. Morris broke from the SDF in 1884 and went on to establish the Socialist League, a more radical group that sought a revolutionary overturn by the mobilised working classes.

Throughout the decade of his most strenuous political engagement, Morris’s continued to run his business. He did not see campaigning as incompatible with his design work and deeply regretted that his products were so expensive.

Details

Date: 1885
Object Type: book
Material: paper
Catalogue number: K604
Author: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Author: Bax, Ernest Belford (1854 - 1926)
Publisher: Socialist League Office
Credit notes: Transfer from Walthamstow Central Library, 1951

Written on New Year’s Day 1885 by William Morris and Ernest Belfort Bax, the Manifesto of the Socialist League sets out the aims of the fledgling political group. After splitting from the Social Democratic Federation, Morris along with Bax, Edward Aveling, Eleanor Marx and others founded the Socialist League as a more radical group that sought ‘the realization of complete revolutionary Socialism’.

Ernest Belfort Bax was a barrister and historian described by May Morris, William’s younger daughter, as ‘the learned and distinguished philosopher’. Bax taught Morris economics and Marxism in regular sessions that Morris referred to as ‘compulsory Baxination’.

The Socialist League logo featured on this pamphlet was designed by Walter Crane. Crane also produced illustrations for membership cards, invitations and posters for the group. His monochrome illustrations and engravings came to define socialist and trade union imagery for the next thirty years.

Details

Date: 1891
Dimensions: 20.6 x 14 (closed)
Object Type: book
Material: paper
Catalogue number: K967
Author: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Publisher: Reeves & Turner
Owner: Morris, Jenny (1861 - 1935)
Credit notes: Miss E. M. Pugh Bequest, 1963

Morris’s ‘News From Nowhere’ was first published in serial form in Commonweal in 1890. In 1891 it was reprinted in book form by Reeves and Turner. It was from this later edition with a few corrections that the text for the Kelmscott Press edition was set up. The illustrated frontispiece, designed by Charles Gere, shows the entrance to Kelmscott Manor, Morris’s country home in Oxfordshire.

Details

Date: May 1870
Object Type: book
Material: paper
Catalogue number: K61
Author: Magnusson, Eirikr (1833 - 1913)
Author: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Publisher: Ellis, Frederick Startridge (1830 - 1901)
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Credit notes: Transfer from Walthamstow Reference Library, 1951

‘The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs’ is a translation of The Völsunga saga (often referred to in English as the Volsunga Saga or Saga of the Völsungs). This legendary saga is a late 13th-century poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan. It was translated for the first time into English by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson in 1870. Morris wrote: “This is the great story of the North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was to the Greeks”. This first edition of the Crown octavo book has green cloth binding with stamped gold pattern designed by Philip Webb. Rossetti wrote on 7 May 1870 “His binding for the Volsungs is most lovely- quite perfect”. 750 copies of the book were printed.

Details

Date: 1885-1886
Object Type: book
Material: paper
Catalogue number: K405
Editor: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Publisher: Socialist League Office
Credit notes: Presented, 1950

The Commonweal was first published in February 1885 with Morris as Editor and one of the principal contributors, both journalistically and financially. He also designed the journal’s headline title. He remained Editor until May 1890, when the paper fell into the hands of the Socialist League’s Anarchist faction. This volume contains issue No.1-50, Feb 1885-25 Dec 1886.

Details

Date: 1883
Dimensions: 24 x 17.3
Object Type: book
Material: paper
Catalogue number: K935
Artist: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Printer: Hazell, Watson & Viney Ltd., London
Publisher: Allen, George
Credit notes: Miss E.M. Pugh Bequest, 1963

Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo and William Morris met through their involvement in the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. This book was published to increase appreciation for the work of seventeenth-century architect Christopher Wren, but it was the title-page that caused the greatest stir. The print on the cover show sinuous, undulating leaves and flowers through which a streamer bearing the title winds, it is flanked at either side by the attenuated form of a peacock.

This edition is smaller edition is in the octavo format and does not feature the Century Guild’s stamp which is seen on the front cover of the larger, quarto editions.

Details

Date: 13.5.1892
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K6
Author: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Hooper, William Harcourt (1834 - 1912)
Publisher: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Seller: Reeves & Turner
Credit notes: Transer from Walthamstow Reference Library, 1950

‘A Dream of John Ball and A King’s Lesson’ (originally called An Old Story Retold) were published in William Morris’s newspaper The Commonweal between 1886-1887. They first appeared in book form in an edition [WMG: K516] published by Reeves & Turner 1888, with an engraved frontispiece by Burne Jones, with a couplet below “When Adam delved and Eve span / Who then was the gentleman?” in upper and lower case lettering designed by Morris. A finished pen and ink drawing by Burne Jones with lettering below by Morris for this frontispiece is in the Gallery’s collection, see D75.

Burne Jones re-drew the illustration for the frontispiece to the Kelmscott Press edition of Morris’s work, and it was engraved on wood by W.H. Hooper. The lettering, this time in capitals only, was designed by Morris also the framing border. 300 copies were printed on paper at £1 10 and 11 copies on vellum at 10 guineas. This copy on paper was presented by Morris to his friend Aglaia Coronio (1834-1906); embroiderer, bookbinder, art collector and patron of the arts.

The whole design was used again on a leaflet printed at the Kelmscott Press in March 1894 for the Ancoats Brotherhood (see copy in the collection). The design was also printed under the title ‘Labour’ in the Daily Chronicle 11 February 1895.

Details

Date: 2.4.1892
Dimensions: 21 x 15 x 2 cm.
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K255
Author: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Publisher: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Seller: Reeves & Turner
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1952

‘The Defence of Guenevere’, Morris’s first volume of poems, was originally published by Bell & Daldy 1858. Owing to a number of errors in this first edition an errata slip was included in this first edition. However, when the book was reprinted by Ellis & White in 1875, these errors were not wholly corrected and many of them also appear in the text of the Kelmscott Press edition. This was the first Kelmscott Press book to be bound in limp vellum and the only one in which the title was inscribed by hand on the spine. This copy was given by William Morris to his good friend Georgian Burne-Jones and is inscribed by him with the date 22nd May 1892. 300 copies were printed on paper at 2 guineas, 10 on vellum at about 12 guineas and sold by Reeves & Turner.

Details

Date: c.1865-68
Dimensions: 16.1 x 15.7
Object Type: book
Technique: wood engraving
Catalogue number: K730a
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1956

‘The Entry into Paradise’ is an early proof on a sheet of paper with 8 other illustrations to ‘The Story of Cupid and Psyche’ for projected edition of ‘The Earthly Paradise’ begun in September 1865. The illustrations were engraved on wood by Morris and his friends and associates in the Firm. Burne-Jones did illustrations for some of the other tales in the Earthly Paradise, but the Cupid and Psyche wood engravings were the most completed part of the project which was abandoned in 1868 after trial pages, set in Basle and Caslon types at the Chiswick Press, did not prove satisfactory.

In 1881 a few copies of these sets of illustrations were made, apparently by Morris himself, by friction printing. A second series (numbering about 8 sets according to Cockerell) was pulled for Morris by Emery Walker at his premises at 16 Cliffords Inn during the Kelmscott Press years; all these were on Kelmscott Press paper. One of these sets, given to Cockerell by Jane Morris c.1898, is bound into the volume K775 owned by the William Morris Gallery. Other sets are in the Pierpont Morgan Library (Gift of John M. Crawford) and the Fitzwilliam Museum (J.R. Holliday Bequest 1927).

Drawings related to the Cupid and Psyche illustrations and other tales from The Earthly Paradise are in the following collections:
A volume of 87 preliminary drawings of various sizes executed in pencil, pen and ink or chalk, is now in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (648’27). A series of 47 finished designs in pencil on tracing paper was given by Burne-Jones to Ruskin, who presented them to Oxford University in 1875 (now in the Ashmolean). Another volume of 39 drawings formerly in the collection of F.S. Ellis is in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; 36 of these are on tracing paper, the remaining 3 on drawing paper; 21 relate to the Cupid and Psyche story though some are variants of scenes which were never engraved on wood; others are for the Story of Pygmalion and The Hill of Venus.

K730a is a continuation of ‘Entry among the Gods I, which shows a group of gods and godesses against the same background; the two subjects were evidently intended to face each other and form a kind of frieze across the double page opening with the text printed in columns below. For a similar arrangement, see the two scenes forming the subject ‘The Procession to the Hill’. The paper has the watermark Michallet

For another early proof on Michallet paper, see K730. For a later proof of the same subject on Kelmscott Press paper, see K775.

Details

Date: c.1865-68
Dimensions: 16.1 x 15.7
Object Type: book
Technique: wood engraving
Catalogue number: K730
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

This is one of a series of illustrations to ‘The Story of Cupid and Psyche’ for the projected edition of ‘The Earthly Paradise’ begun in September 1865. The illustrations were engraved on wood by Morris and his friends and associates in the Firm. Burne-Jones did illustrations for some of the other tales in ‘The Earthly Paradise’, but the Cupid and Psyche wood engravings were the most completed part of the project which was abandoned in 1868 after trial pages, set in Basle and Caslon types at the Chiswick Press, did not prove satisfactory.

In 1881, a few copies of these sets of illustrations were made, apparently by Morris himself, by friction printing. A second series (numbering about 8 sets according to Sydney Cockerell) was pulled for Morris by Emery Walker at his premises at 16 Cliffords Inn during the Kelmscott Press years; all these were on Kelmscott Press paper. One of these sets, given to Cockerell by Jane Morris c.1898, is bound into a single volume (K775) owned by the William Morris Gallery. Other sets are in the Pierpont Morgan Library (Gift of John M. Crawford) and the Fitzwilliam Museum (J.R. Holliday Bequest 1927).

Drawings related to the Cupid and Psyche illustrations and other tales from ‘The Earthly Paradise’ are in the following collections: A volume of 86 preliminary drawings of various sizes executed in pencil, pen and ink or chalk, is now in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (648’27). A series of 47 finished designs in pencil on tracing paper was given by Burne-Jones to Ruskin, who presented them to Oxford University in 1875 (now in the Ashmolean). Another volume of 39 drawings formerly in the collection of F.S. Ellis is in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; 36 of these are on tracing paper, the remaining 3 on drawing paper; 21 relate to the Cupid and Psyche story though some are variants of scenes which were never engraved on wood; others are for the Story of Pygmalion and The Hill of Venus.

Details

Date: c.1865-68
Dimensions: 16.1 x 15.7
Object Type: book
Technique: wood engraving
Catalogue number: K792
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1956

Details

Date: c.1865-68
Dimensions: 10.5 x 15.8
Object Type: book
Technique: wood engraving
Catalogue number: K791
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1956

Details

Date: c.1868
Dimensions: 10.9 x 16
Object Type: book
Technique: wood engraving
Catalogue number: K726a
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Burden, Elizabeth (13.12.1841 - 22.08.1924)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

This is one of a series of illustrations to ‘The Story of Cupid and Psyche’ for the projected edition of ‘The Earthly Paradise’ begun in September 1865. The illustrations were engraved on wood by Morris and his friends and associates in the Firm, this particular illustration was engraved by Elizabeth Burden, it was the only one she did for the series. Burne-Jones did illustrations for some of the other tales in ‘The Earthly Paradise’, but the Cupid and Psyche wood engravings were the most completed part of the project which was abandoned in 1868 after trial pages, set in Basle and Caslon types at the Chiswick Press, did not prove satisfactory.

For another early proof on proof paper see WMG: K726.

Details

Date: c.1868
Dimensions: 10.8 x 16
Object Type: book
Technique: wood engraving
Catalogue number: K726
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Burden, Elizabeth (13.12.1841 - 22.08.1924)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

This is one of a series of illustrations to ‘The Story of Cupid and Psyche’ for the projected edition of ‘The Earthly Paradise’ begun in September 1865. The illustrations were engraved on wood by Morris and his friends and associates in the Firm. This particular illustration was engraved by Elizabeth Burden, it was the only one she did for the series. Burne-Jones did illustrations for some of the other tales in ‘The Earthly Paradise’, but the Cupid and Psyche wood engravings were the most completed part of the project which was abandoned in 1868 after trial pages, set in Basle and Caslon types at the Chiswick Press, did not prove satisfactory.

For another early proof on proof paper see WMG: K726a.

Details

Date: c.1868
Dimensions: 10.4 x 15.8
Object Type: book
Technique: wood engraving
Catalogue number: K720
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

Details

Date: 01.1850
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K72
Author: The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Designer: Hunt, William Holman, 1827, 1910
Publisher: Aylott and Jones
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1951

The Germ was a magazine established in 1850 at the beginning of the Pre-Raphaelite movement by its founding members Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and, editor and ‘historian’ of the movement, William Michael Rossetti. Born out of an idea of D G Rossetti’s, the magazine sought to circulate the creative work and radical ideas of the Pre-Raphaelites as expressed in poetry, literature and art.

Details

Date: 1889
Dimensions: 16.9 x 10.5 (closed)
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K2891
Author: Blunt, Wilfred Scawen (1840 - 1922)
Designer: Morris (née Burden) | Jane | 1839 | 1914
Publisher: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co
Credit notes: Presented by Frank C Sharp, 2014

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt’s In Vinculis is a poetic response to his imprisonment for his role in an anti-eviction meeting in Galway, Ireland. The book cover was designed by Jane Morris and features a scrolling design of shamrocks, a symbol of Ireland. Blunt and Morris were lovers in the late 1880s.

Details

Date: 1924
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K2871
Illustrator: Brangwyn, Frank, Sir (1867 - 1956)
Author: Hardie, Martin (1875 - 1952)
Credit notes: Presented by Martin Adams, 2013

This souvenir edition was produced for the British Empire Exhibition held at Wembley Park. The volume has colour lithographic illustrations throughout by Spencer Pryse, including a four panel foldout plate to the rear by Frank Brangwyn. The exhibition was conceived by the British Empire League and ultimately acted as a form of propaganda to promote a white supremacist racial hierarchy. The exhibition featured ‘Human zoos’, with mocked up villages populated by 273 people on display from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, kept in compounds on the Wembley site for several months of the exhibition.

Object Type: book

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