DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45417#0021
A SHORT HISTORY AND DESCRIP/
TION OF THE KELMSCOTT PRESS.
The foregoing article was written at the request
of a London bookseller for an American client
who was about to read a paper on the Kelmscott
Press. As the Press is now closing,and its seven
years’ existence will soon be a matter of history,
it seems fitting to set down some other facts con/
cerning it while they can still be verified; the more
so as statements founded on imperfect informa,
tion have appeared from time to time in news/
papers and reviews.
As early as 1866 an edition of The Earthly Para,
disewas projected, which was to have been a folio
in double columns, profusely illustrated by Sir
Edward Burne-Jones,and typographically supe,
rior to the books of that time. The designs for the
stories of Cupid and Psyche, Pygmalion and the
Image, The Ring given toVenus, and The Hill of
Venus, were finished, and forty-/four of those for
Cupid and Psychewere engraved on wood in line,
somewhat in the manner of the early German
masters. About thirty/fiveof the blocks were exe,
cuted by William Morris himself, & the remain,
der by George Y. Wardle, G. F. Campfield, C. J.
Faulkner, and Miss Elizabeth Burden.Specimen
pages were set up in Caslon type, and in the Chis,
wick Press type afterwards used in The House of
the Wolfings, but for various reasons the project
went no further. Four or five years later there was a
7
TION OF THE KELMSCOTT PRESS.
The foregoing article was written at the request
of a London bookseller for an American client
who was about to read a paper on the Kelmscott
Press. As the Press is now closing,and its seven
years’ existence will soon be a matter of history,
it seems fitting to set down some other facts con/
cerning it while they can still be verified; the more
so as statements founded on imperfect informa,
tion have appeared from time to time in news/
papers and reviews.
As early as 1866 an edition of The Earthly Para,
disewas projected, which was to have been a folio
in double columns, profusely illustrated by Sir
Edward Burne-Jones,and typographically supe,
rior to the books of that time. The designs for the
stories of Cupid and Psyche, Pygmalion and the
Image, The Ring given toVenus, and The Hill of
Venus, were finished, and forty-/four of those for
Cupid and Psychewere engraved on wood in line,
somewhat in the manner of the early German
masters. About thirty/fiveof the blocks were exe,
cuted by William Morris himself, & the remain,
der by George Y. Wardle, G. F. Campfield, C. J.
Faulkner, and Miss Elizabeth Burden.Specimen
pages were set up in Caslon type, and in the Chis,
wick Press type afterwards used in The House of
the Wolfings, but for various reasons the project
went no further. Four or five years later there was a
7