At MRM Books, we specialize in the works of William Morris, in especial editions from his renowned Kelmscott Press and first and early editions of his works. Join us as we celebrate the art of reading and enjoying "beautiful books."
Although Morris is know today the world over as the principle founder of the Arts & Crafts Movement, a Pre-Raphaelite artist, and mostly as the popular 19th century designer of fabrics, wallpapers, stained glass, tiles, furniture, and more at his immensely successful Morris & Co., in his own day he was know throughout the four corners of the world as a poet and author for hugely success works of poetry, including THE DEFENSE OF GUENEVERE and THE EARTHY PARADISE, and his highly influential utopian novel, NEWS FROM NOWHERE, which help, along with his own liberal political involvement, to establish what later became the Labour Party in today's U.K. His influence on J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, who read at Oxford a generation later, and indeed upon all modern fantasy literature is little know and highly underrated.
Brows the collection of books on offer from MRM Books, specializing mostly first editions and ephemera related to William Morris and his famed Kelmscott Press. "I began printing books with the hope of producing some which would have a definite claim to beauty, while at the same time they should be easy to read and should not dazzle the eye”.
As a collector of Kelmscott Press books (as well as a seller), I have been rebinding some of the books in my collection that have perished bindings or are badly stained/damaged and are extremely unsightly, mostly in order that I can easily read them without endangering the book block itself.
I have chosen to attempt to recreate bindings similar to and inspired by the Doves Bindery cover designed by Morris for his WORKS OF CHAUCER. Executed by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson, Morris had envisioned a Gothic style, blind-stamped, alum-tawed pigskin binding similar to those in his own extensive collection of early illuminated manuscripts and incunabula. He only ever designed four binding; and, indeed, this was one of the last designs of any kind that he made. For, according to his physician, "Morris died [at just 62] of simply having done more in one lifetime than most ten men."
The image in the header of this page shows bindings that I have done for 16mo, 8vo, and small & large 4tos. The CHAUCER is the Slater-Gribbel-Schimmel copy and is included as a reference for what I was striving to achieve. (Note that the Kelmscott Press MRRM bindings in my collection are not for sale.)
I first started collecting and then selling Kelmscott Press books because of the feel of the page when reading one, the tactile impression the type and illustrations left in hand-made paper, that wonderful, fresh smell of a well-crafted book that has already been around for more than a hundred years... And I want to share that joy with you!
Not just the textile and wallpaper designer still known today the world over… Morris also not only designed wallpapers, chintzes, furniture, tapestries, tiles, and stained glass, etc., he was a Poet, Novelist, Pamphleteer, Playwright & Actor, Socialist/Anti-capitalist and Reformer, Activist, Lecturer, Abolitionist, proto-Feminist, Advocate for Workers’ and Women’s Rights, Environmentalist, Champion for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings, & for Art and Beauty in One’s Daily Life, etc., a Font Designer, Calligrapher, & Illuminator, Painter, Educationalist, Internationalist, Weaver & Dyer, Translator of Ancient Latin & Ancient Greek, Old & Middle English, Medieval French & Medieval Icelandic, … and a Printer
"If I were asked to say what is at once the most important production of Art and the thing most to be longed for; I should answer: A beautiful House. And if I were further asked to name the production next in importance and the thing next to be longed for, I should answer: A beautiful Book”
If anyone out there can help me more-positively identify this print from the Kelmscott Press, I would greatly appreciate it. I believe this woodblock print is a design by Edward Burne-Jones for the projected edition of Lord Berners's TRANSLATION OF FROISSART'S CHRONICLES OF FRAUNCE, INGLANDE AND OTHER PLACES. Although such designs are know to exist, they are so rare it's hard to identify this as one of them. Such prints are often misidentified as trials for the CHAUCER. Thanks!
by anonymous, edited by Frederick Startridge Ellis, after the edition printed by J.O. Halliwell, from the Cambridge manuscript, with some additions and variations from the THORNTON ROMANCES manuscript, in the Library of Lincoln Cathedral, illustrated by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1897.
