Lot 185: MORRIS, William and the KELMSCOTT PRESS. Two trial pages of the projected edition of Lord

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Description: MORRIS, William and the KELMSCOTT PRESS. Two trial pages of the projected edition of Lord Berner's Translation of Froissart's Chronicles. Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1897.

2° (421 x 284mm). Vellum bifolium, Chaucer and Troy type, printed in red and black, wood-engraved borders bearing the arms of France, the Empire, England, Reginald Lord Cobham, Sir Walter Manny and Sir John Chandos. Unbound, held with paper flyleaves within blue cloth portfolio (extremities worn). Provenance: purchased from Charles Sessler, Philadelphia, 3 November 1943, $35.

LIMITED TO 160 COPIES ON VELLUM at 1 guinea. Morris had intended to produce a 2-volume folio of 'almost his favourite book', as a companion to the Kelmscott Chaucer. Trial pages were begun as early as 1892, but the project was abandoned in 1896, the Chaucer taking precedence. Only sixteen of the pages were ever printed (and given to personal friends) before Morris's death, following which two pages were finished by C.E. Keates and printed by Stephen Mowlem from preparatory designs. Sparling 46.

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