“The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer: Prologue”, Kelmscott Press p 1-2

Details

Date: 1895
Dimensions: 37.5 x 31.75
Object Type: print
Material: paper
Technique: woodcut
Catalogue number: P300a
Credit notes: Presented by J.W. Mackail?

The illustration was originally produced as an etching for the frontispiece to Morris’ “A Dream of John Ball” (Reeves & Turner 1888); the original drawing for this is in the Gallery’s collection, D75. The motto was in lower case roman letter printed by woodcut.
In this version, the enlarged illustration was printed in the Daily Chronicle as one of 24 illustrations by well-known artists of the day, assembled by Joseph Pennell with the object of furthering the cause of the Reform Party at the LCC elections of 1895; the title of the illustration on this occasion was ‘Labour’ and it was purported that it had been drawn especially for the Daily Chronicle. It is probably from the issue of Monday, 18th February 1895.
The illustration was again used in the Kelmscott Press edition of Morris’ book (Sept. 1892), framed in Morris frame with motto in capitals; both were woodcuts. This was also re-used for the leaflet printed in March 1894 for the Ancoats Brotherhood.
For another copy see P300.

Details

Date: c.1866
Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.3
Object Type: print
Material: paper
Technique: woodcut
Catalogue number: K26
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898

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.

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.1866
Dimensions: 15.6 x 22.7
Object Type: print
Material: paper
Technique: woodcut
Catalogue number: K21a
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898

Details

Date: c.1866
Dimensions: 15.6 x 22.7
Object Type: print
Material: paper
Technique: woodcut
Catalogue number: K21
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898

Details

Date: 1895
Dimensions: 34 x 29.1
Object Type: print
Material: paper
Technique: woodcut
Catalogue number: P300
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Elinor Pugh, 1940

The illustration was originally produced as an etching for the frontispiece to Morris’ “A Dream of John Ball” (Reeves & Turner 1888); the original drawing for this is in the Gallery’s collection, D75. The motto was in lower case roman letter printed by woodcut. The illustration was again used in the Kelmscott Press edition of Morris’ book (Sept. 1892), framed in Morris frame with motto in capitals; both were woodcuts. This was also re-used for the leaflet printed in March 1894 for the Ancoats Brotherhood. The Daily Chronicle illustration was done as one of 24 illustrations by well-known artists of the day, assembled by Joseph Pennell with the object of furthering the cause of the Reform Party at the LCC elections of 1895; the title of the illustration on this occasion was ‘Labour’ and it was purported that it had been drawn especially for the Daily Chronicle.
For another copy see P300a.

Technique: woodcut

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