Designed by William Morris

Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400).
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, now Newly Imprinted.
Hammersmith: William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, 8 May 1896. (10363)

The Doves Bindery opened in 1893 under the leadership of Thomas J. Cobden-Sanderson (1840–1922). It aspired to do for bookbinding what the Kelmscott Press did for printing: establish binding as a fine art by using the highest quality materials and the best manual binding techniques. Cobden-Sanderson, who disapproved of the shoddy workmanship of the modern commercial binderies, also criticized the “deplorable miracles of misapplied skill” coming out of the popular firms like Rivière & Sons and Zaehnsdorf’s. When William Morris needed a suitable binding for the Kelmscott Press Chaucer, he naturally turned to his friends at the Doves Bindery. Morris wanted a fifteenth-century style binding for the Chaucer, but Cobden-Sanderson, declining to produce a retrospective pastiche, convinced Morris to design it himself for the Doves Bindery to execute. This copy was presented by the book's illustrator, Edward Burne-Jones, to his daughter.

Designed%20by%20William%20Morris%2010363.jpg
The Nineteenth Century
Designed by William Morris