Pageant of British Empire, Souvenir Volume

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.

Details

Date: 1892
Dimensions: 29.3 x 21.3 x 3.7 (closed)
Object Type: book
Material: paper with half holland binding
Catalogue number: K17c
Manufacturer: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Editor: Ellis, Frederick Startridge (1830 - 1901)
Seller: Quaritch, Bernard (1819 - 1899)
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Hooper, William Harcourt (1834 - 1912)
Translator: Caxton, William (1415 - 1492)

‘The Golden Legend’ was intended to be the first title issued by the Kelmscott Press, but was delayed because of its length (some 1,300 folio pages) and the fact that the original paper delivery was not sized correctly. The text is by Jacobus de Voragine and is a thirteenth century collection of saints lives, it was one of the first books printed in English by William Caxton who also translated it from Latin. Kelmscott Press editor, FS Ellis’s daughter Phyllis transcribed Caxton’s first edition from Cambridge University Library. The illustrations are Edward Burne-Jones and it is one of three volumes (see also K17a and K17b). 500 copies on paper were printed, none on vellum.

Details

Date: 1892
Dimensions: 29.3 x 21.3 x 3.7 (closed)
Object Type: book
Material: paper with half holland binding
Catalogue number: K17b
Manufacturer: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Editor: Ellis, Frederick Startridge (1830 - 1901)
Translator: Caxton, William (1415 - 1492)
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Hooper, William Harcourt (1834 - 1912)
Seller: Quaritch, Bernard (1819 - 1899)

‘The Golden Legend’ was intended to be the first title issued by the Kelmscott Press, but was delayed because of its length (some 1,300 folio pages) and the fact that the original paper delivery was not sized correctly. The text is by Jacobus de Voragine and is a thirteenth century collection of saints lives, it was one of the first books printed in English by William Caxton who also translated it from Latin. Kelmscott Press editor, FS Ellis’s daughter Phyllis transcribed Caxton’s first edition from Cambridge University Library. The illustrations are Edward Burne-Jones and it is one of three volumes (see also K17a and K17c). 500 copies on paper were printed, none on vellum.

Details

Date: 1892
Dimensions: 29.3 x 21.3 x 3.7 (closed)
Object Type: book
Material: paper with half holland binding
Catalogue number: K17a
Printer: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Translator: Caxton, William (1415 - 1492)
Illustrator: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Editor: Ellis, Frederick Startridge (1830 - 1901)
Retailer: Quaritch, Bernard (1819 - 1899)
Maker: Hooper, William Harcourt (1834 - 1912)

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 29.9 x 17 x 1.3
Object Type: book
Material: paper in quarter holland binding
Catalogue number: K258
Manufacturer: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Illustrator: Gaskin, Arthur Joseph (1862 - 1928)
Owner: Burne-Jones, Georgiana (1840 - 1920)
Editor: Ellis, Frederick Startridge (1830 - 1901)
Credit notes: Transfer from Walthamstow Reference Library, 1953

Formerly in the posession of Giorgiana Burne-Jones. Text by Edmund Spenser. Edited by F.S. Ellis. 12 illustrations by Arthur J. Gaskin and printed from process blocks by Walker and Boutall. 225 paper copies, 6 on vellum. The Shepheardes Calender was Edmund Spenser’s first major poetic work, published in 1579. It emulates Virgil’s first work, the Eclogues. The Shepheardes Calender is a poem that consists of twelve eclogues. Each eclogue is named after a different month, which represents the turning of seasons. An eclogue is a short pastoral poem that is in the form of a dialogue or soliloquy.

Details

Date: 1896
Object Type: book
Material: paper with half holland binding
Catalogue number: K20
Manufacturer: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Author: Chaucer, Geoffrey (1340 - 1400)
Artist: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Illustrator: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1951

During the last years of William Morris’s life, he was often occupied with the ambitious Kelmscott Press edition of ‘The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer’. The project involved printing a new edition of the complete works of Geoffrey Chaucer with decorated borders and initials, a newly designed typeface and numerous illustrations by Edward Burne-Jones. The book took over four years to complete and included eighty-seven woodcut illustrations by Burne-Jones.

The Kelmscott ‘Chaucer’ was the last great project of Morris’s life and combined his passions for literature and design. The printing of the book also reflected ideas from Morris’s socialist philosophy regarding the division of labour and the rejection of modern mechanisation. In total 438 copies of the book were printed over two years, thirteen were printed on vellum and 425 on handmade paper. Forty-eight paper editions were specially bound in white pig’s skin featuring a design Morris had created. A few months before his death, Morris was shown a copy of the specially bound edition for the first time, which he described as ‘very satisfactory’.

Shown here is the first page of a paper edition of the Kelmscott ‘Chaucer’. The title page, initial letters, and border decoration were all designed by Morris. The first woodcut illustration by Burne-Jones can also be seen and shows a portrait of Chaucer. Morris had to scale down his ‘Troy’ typeface for the Kelmscott Chaucer creating the font seen here. Despite the scaled down font, the book is by far the largest produced by the Kelmscott Press.

Object Type: book

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