Production

Though 438 copies were printed, the Queen’s Kelmscott Chaucer is one of only 48 editions bound in white pigskin with silver clasps at the Doves Bindery. The binding is hand tooled after Morris’s own design.  In search of the highest quality supplies, Morris imported printer’s ink from Hanover and had the linen paper made at a private paper mill nearby in Kent. The 87 illustrations are wood engravings by W.H. Hooper after the original drawings by Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1893), with whom Morris worked closely on the concept and design.

The labour intensive process and expensive materials that made the Kelmscott Chaucer the work of art that it was also rendered it a luxury consumer good. In fact, some contemporary collectors spoke of it as an investment: an expensive one, but with a rising value that ensured an excellent rate of interest.  Morris was troubled by the expense of his designs and their increasingly elite audience, which did not align with his socialist values. The Chaucer was not a commercial venture but, as a contemporary stated, “The Kelmscott Chaucer was to him far more of a monument erected in reverent affection, and in recognition of a lifelong debt, than a personal achievement in book printing”.