Remarkable Books - Fine Press

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Powys's essay on his philosophy of life is rendered in beautiful typesetting and design with woodcut engravings throughout by Robert Gibbings.
The Glory of Life in glorious design by the Golden Cockerel Press
Llewlyn Powys, Glory of Life, 1934.. Wood engravings by Robert Gibbings. [Acc 35:533. Purchased by the Library Committee, 1935.]
Regarded by some as the most beautiful book ever printed, only 13 copies of the Kelmscott Chaucer were ever printed on vellum. The illustrations were created by William Morris's artistic collaborator Edward Burne-Jones. This sheet was presented by William Morris's daughter, May, in 1927.
Test sheet on vellum for the Kelmscott Press's Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Showing the end of the Man of Law's Tale and start of the Shipman's Tale. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, 1896. [Acc. 28500. Presented by Miss May Morris, 1927]
This book epitomises the hand-made ethos of the arts and crafts movement with its woodcut borders, initials and typesetting. Reprinted from Caxton's 1481 edition, it is bound in limp vellum.
The first book published by William Morris's Kelmscott Press
The History of Godefrey of Boloyne and the Conquest of Iherusalem, 1893 [Acc. 27780. Presented by Mr. William Cadbury, 1927.]
After a long search, Robert Gibbings found the only UK copy of this book in Bath Reference Library from which he created this beautiful fine press version with 12 engravings. It was given to the Library in acknowledgement of the loan.
The original story of Moby Dick and the Golden Cockerel Press reprint
Narratives of the Wreck of the Whale-Ship Essex …, 1935 [Acc 35:1878. Gift of Robert Gibbings, 1935.] AND Owen Chase, Narrative of the... shipwreck of the whale-ship Essex, New York, 1821. [Acc. 14877. Gift of M. Oppenheim, 1919.]

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