THE KELMSCOTT PRESS.
Although Morris turned with what seemed a sudden inspiration to the study
of typography, it was, as we have already seen, no less than his other
occupations a direct outcome of his early tastes. As long before as 1866
he had planned a folio edition of _The Earthly Paradise_ with woodcut
illustrations to be designed by Burne-Jones, and printed in a more or less
mediaeval fashion. Burne-Jones made a large number of drawings for the
projected edition, and some thirty-five of those intended for the story of
Cupid and Psyche were cut on wood by Morris himself. Specimen pages were
set up, but the result was not technically satisfying and the idea was
allowed to drop. Later, as we have seen, he had in mind an illustrated and
sumptuous edition of _Love is Enough_, which also came to nothing,
although a number of marginal decorations were drawn and engraved for it.
After that, however, he apparently had been content to have his books
printed in the usual way on machine-made paper with the modern effeminate
type, without further remonstrance than emphatic denunciation of modern
methods in printing as in other handicrafts. About 1888 or 1889, his
Hammersmith neighbour, Mr. Emery Walker, whose love of fine printing was
combined with practical knowledge of methods and processes, awakened in
him a desire for conquest in this field also. He began again collecting
mediaeval books, this time with the purpose of studying their type and
form. Among his acquisitions were a copy of Leonard of Arezzo's _History
of Florence_, printed by Jacobus Rubens in 1476, in a Roman type, and a
copy of Jensen's _Pliny_ of the same year. Parts of these books Morris had
enlarged by the hated process of photography, which in this case aided and
abetted him to some purpose. He could thus study the individual letters
and master the underlying principles of their design. He then proceeded to
design a fount of type for himself with the aim of producing letters fine
and generous in form, solid in line, without "preposterous thicks and
thins," and not compressed laterally, "as all later type has grown to be
owing to commercial exigencies." After he had drawn his letters on a large
scale he had them reduced by photography to the working size and revised
them carefully before submitting them to the typecutter. How minute was
his attention to detail is shown in the little reproduction of one of his
corrected letters with the accompanying notes. This first type of his,
having been founded on the old Roman letters, is of course Roman in
character and is very clear and beautiful in form. The strong broad
letters designed on "something like a square" make easy reading, and there
is nothing about the appearance of the attractive page to suggest
archaism. The fount, consisting of eighty-one designs including stops,
figures, and tied letters, was completed about the beginning of 1891, and
on the 12th of January in that year, a cottage was taken at number 16
Upper Mall, near the Kelmscott House, a compositor and a pressman were
engaged, and the Kelmscott Press began its career. The new type, which
Morris called the "regenerate" or "Jenson-Morris" type, received its
formal name, "Golden type," from Caxton's _Golden Legend_, which Morris
had intended to reprint as the first work of the Press, and which was
undertaken as soon as _The Glittering Plain_ was out of the way. Caxton's
first edition of 1483 was borrowed from the Cambridge University Library
for the purpose and transcribed for the Press by the daughter of Morris's
old friend and publisher, F. S. Ellis. No paper in the market was good
enough for the great venture, and Morris took down to Mr. Batchelor at
Little Chart a model dating back to the fifteenth century and had
especially designed from it an unbleached linen paper, thin and tough, and
somewhat transparent, made on wire moulds woven by hand for the sake of
the slight irregularities thus caused in the texture, and "pleasing not
only to the eye, but to the hand also; having something of the clean crisp
quality of a new bank-note." For the three different sizes Morris
designed three watermarks, an apple, a daisy, and a perch with a spray in
its mouth. To print his strong type upon this handmade paper it was
necessary to dampen the latter and use a hand-press, the ink being applied
by pelt balls, insuring an equable covering of the surface of the type and
a rich black impression. The quality of the ink was naturally of great
importance and Morris yearned to manufacture his own, but for the time
contented himself with some that he procured from Hanover and with which
he produced excellent results. One of his happiest convictions in regard
to his materials was that heavy paper was entirely unfit for small books.
[Illustration: KELMSCOTT TYPES]
Concerning spacing and the placing of the matter on the page he had
pronounced theories derived from his study of ancient books, but directed
by his own sound taste. He held that there should be no more white space
between the words than just clearly cuts them off from one another, and
that "leads" (strips of metal used to increase the space between the lines
of type) should be sparingly employed. The two pages of a book, facing
each other as it is opened, should be considered a unit, the edge of the
margin that is bound in should be the smallest of the four edges, the top
should be somewhat wider, and the front edge wider still, and the tail
widest of all. The respective measurements of the most important of the
Kelmscott books are, one inch for the inner margin, one and
three-eighths inches for the head margin, two and three-quarter inches
for the fore edge, and four inches for the tail. "I go so far as to say,"
wrote Morris, "that any book in which the page is properly put on the
paper is tolerable to look at, however poor the type may be (always so
long as there is no 'ornament' which may spoil the whole thing), whereas
any book in which the page is wrongly set on the paper is intolerable to
look at, however good the type and ornaments may be."
[Illustration: PAGE FROM KELMSCOTT "CHAUCER." ILLUSTRATION BY BURNE-JONES.
BORDER AND INITIAL LETTER BY MORRIS]
_The Golden Legend_, with its ornamented borders, its handsome initials,
its woodcuts, and its twelve hundred and eighty-six pages, kept the one
press busy until the middle of September, 1892. Before it was completed
Morris had designed another fount of type greatly more pleasing to him
than the first. This was called the Troy type from Caxton's _Historyes of
Troye_, the first book to be issued in its larger size, and was the
outcome of careful study of the beautiful types of Peter Schoeffer of
Mainz, Gunther Zainer of Augsburg, and Anthony Koburger of Nuremberg. It
was Gothic in character, but Morris strove to redeem it from the charge of
unreadableness by using the short form of the small _s_, by diminishing
the number of tied letters, and abolishing the abbreviations to be found
in mediaeval books. How far he succeeded is a disputed question, certainly
not so far as to make it as easy reading for modern eyes as the Golden
type. As time went on, however, the use of the Golden type at the
Kelmscott Press became less and less frequent, giving place in the case of
most of the more important books to either the Troy type or the Chaucer
type, the latter being similar to the former, save that it is Great Pica
instead of Primer size.
Morris's success in the mechanical application of his theories was
surprising, or would have been surprising had he not constantly proven his
genius for success. Mr. De Vinne quotes a prominent American typefounder
as declaring after a close scrutiny of his cuts of type that he had
triumphantly passed the pitfalls that beset all tyros and had made types
that in lining, fitting, and adjustment show the skill of the expert. "A
printer of the old school may dislike many of his mannerisms of
composition and make-up," adds Mr. De Vinne, "but he will cheerfully admit
that his types and decorations and initials are in admirable accord: that
the evenness of colour he maintains on his rough paper is remarkable, and
that his registry of black with red is unexceptionable. No one can examine
a book made by Morris without the conviction that it shows the hand of a
master."
[Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF THE KELMSCOTT "CHAUCER"]
Upon the artistic side it was natural that he should excel. His long
practice in and love of design, his close study of the best models, and
his exacting taste were promising of extraordinary results. None the less
there is perhaps more room for criticism of his book decoration than of
his plain bookmaking. He was convinced, as one would expect him to be,
that modern methods of illustrating and decorating a book were entirely
wrong, and he argued with indisputable logic for the unity of impression
to be gained from ornaments and pictures forming part of the page, in
other words, being made in line as readily printed as the type itself and
corresponding to it in size and degree of blackness. He argued that the
ornament to be ornament must submit to certain limitations and become
"architectural," and also that it should be used with exuberance or
restraint according to the matter of the book decorated. Thus "a work on
differential calculus," he says, "a medical work, a dictionary, a
collection of a statesman's speeches, or a treatise on manures, such
books, though they might be handsomely and well printed, would scarcely
receive ornament with the same exuberance as a volume of lyrical poems, or
a standard classic, or such like. A work on Art, I think, bears less of
ornament than any other kind of book (_non bis in idem_ is a good motto);
again, a book that _must_ have _illustrations_, more or less utilitarian,
should, I think, have no actual _ornament_ at all, because the ornament
and the illustration must almost certainly fight." He designed all his
ornaments with his own hand, from the minute leaves and flowers which took
the place of periods on his page, to the full-page borders, titles, and
elaborate initials. He drew with a brush, on a sheet of paper from the
Press marked with ruled lines, showing the exact position to be occupied
by the design. "It was most usual during the last few years of his life,"
says Mr. Vallance, "to find him thus engaged, with his Indian ink and
Chinese white in little saucers before him upon the table, its boards bare
of any cloth covering, but littered with books and papers and sheets of
MS. He did not place any value on the original drawings, regarding them as
just temporary instruments, only fit, as soon as engraved, to be thrown
away." Time and trouble counted for nothing with him in gaining the
desired result. But though his ornament was always handsome, and
occasionally exquisite, he not infrequently overloaded his page with it,
and--preaching vigorously the necessity of restraint--allowed his fancy to
lead him into garrulous profusion. Despite his mediaeval proclivities, his
designs for the borders of his pages are intensely modern. Compare them
with the early books by which they were inspired, and their flowing
elaboration, so free from unexpectedness, so impersonal, so inexpressive,
suggests the fatal defect of all imitative work and fails in distinction.
But he was individual enough in temper if not in execution, and he brooked
no conventional restriction that interfered with his doing what pleased
him. For example, the notion of making the border ornaments agree in
spirit with the subject matter of the page was not to be entertained for a
moment when he had in mind a fine design of grapes hanging ripe from their
vines and a page of Chaucer's description of April to adorn.
During the life of the Kelmscott Press, a period of some half dozen years,
Morris made six hundred and forty-four designs. The illustrations proper,
all of them woodcuts harmonising in their strong black line with the
ornaments and type, were made, with few exceptions, by Burne-Jones. His
designs were nearly always drawn in pencil, a medium in which his most
characteristic effects were obtained. They were then redrawn in ink by
another hand, revised by Burne-Jones, and finally transferred to the block
again by that useful Cinderella of the Kelmscott Press, photography. It is
obvious that the Kelmscott books, whatever fault may be found with them,
could not be other than remarkable creations with Morris and Burne-Jones
uniting their gifts to make each of them such a picture-book as Morris
declared at the height of his ardour was "one of the very worthiest things
toward the production of which reasonable men should strive."
The list of works selected to be issued from the Press is interesting,
indicating as it does a line of taste somewhat narrow and tangential to
the popular taste of the time. Before the three volumes of _The Golden
Legend_ ("the Interminable" it was called) were out of his hands, Morris
had bought a second large press and had engaged more workmen with an idea
in mind of printing all his own works beginning with _Sigurd the Volsung_.
He had already, during 1891, printed in addition to _The Glittering
Plain_, a volume of his collected verse entitled _Poems by the Way_, the
final long poem of which, _Goldilocks and Goldilocks_, he wrote on the
spur of the moment, after the book was set up in type, to "plump it out a
bit" as it seemed rather scant. During the following year, before the
appearance of _The Golden Legend_, were issued a volume of poems by
Wilfrid Blunt, who was one of his personal friends; the chapter from
Ruskin's _Stones of Venice_ on "The Nature of the Gothic," with which he
had such early and such close associations, and two more of his own works,
_The Defence of Guenevere_ and _The Dream of John Ball_. In the case of
the four books written by himself he issued in addition to the paper
copies a few on vellum. All these early books were small quartos and bound
in vellum covers. Immediately following _The Golden Legend_ came the
_Historyes of Troye_, two volumes in the new type, Mackail's _Biblia
Innocentium_, and Caxton's _Reynarde the Foxe_ in large quarto size and
printed in the Troy type. The year 1893 began with a comparatively modern
book, Shakespeare's _Poems_, followed in rapid succession by Caxton's
translation of _The Order of Chivalry_, in one volume with _The Ordination
of Knighthood_, translated by Morris himself from a twelfth-century French
poem; Cavendish's _Life of Cardinal Wolsey_; Caxton's history of Godefrey
of Boloyne; Ralph Robinson's translation of Sir Thomas More's _Utopia_;
Tennyson's _Maud_; a lecture by Morris on _Gothic Architecture_,
forty-five copies of which he printed on vellum; and Lady Wilde's
translation of _Sidonia the Sorceress_ from the German of William
Meinhold, a book for which both Morris and Rossetti had a positive
passion, Morris considering it without a rival of its kind, and an almost
faultless reproduction of the life of the past. The year ended with two
volumes of Rossetti's _Ballads and Narrative Poems_, and _The Tale of King
Florus and Fair Jehane_, translated by Morris from the French of a little
volume that forty years before had served to introduce him to mediaeval
French romance and had been treasured by him ever since.
[Illustration: THE SMALLER KELMSCOTT PRESS-MARK]
[Illustration: THE LARGER KELMSCOTT PRESS-MARK]
[Illustration: DRAWING BY MORRIS OF THE LETTER "h" FOR KELMSCOTT TYPE,
WITH NOTES AND CORRECTIONS]
"After this continuous torrent of production," says Mr. Mackail, "the
Press for a time slackened off a little," but the output in 1894 consisted
of ten books as against the eleven of the previous year. The first was a
large quarto edition of _The Glittering Plain_, printed this time in the
Troy type and illustrated with twenty-three pictures by Walter Crane. Next
came another little volume of mediaeval romance, the story of _Amis and
Amile_, translated in a day and a quarter; and after this, Keats's
_Poems_.
In July of the same year the bust of Keats, executed by the American
sculptor, Miss Anne Whitney, was unveiled in the Parish Church of
Hampstead, the first memorial to Keats on English ground. The scheme for
such a memorial had been promoted in America, Lowell being one of the
earliest to encourage it, and a little notice of the ceremony was printed
at the Kelmscott Press with the card of invitation. Swinburne's _Atalanta
in Calydon_ followed _Keats_ in a large quarto edition. Next came the
third volume of the French romances containing _The Tale of the Emperor
Constans_ and _The History of Oversea_. At this point Morris returned
again to the printing of his own works, and the next book to be issued
from the Press was _The Wood beyond the World_, with a lovely frontispiece
by Burne-Jones representing "the Maid," the heroine of the romance, and
one of the most charming of the visionary women created by Morris. _The
Book of Wisdom and Lies_, a Georgian story-book of the eighteenth century,
written by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, and translated by Oliver Wardrop, was
the next stranger to come from the Press, and after it was issued the
first of a set of Shelley's _Poems_. A rhymed version of _The Penitential
Psalms_ found in a manuscript of _The Hours of Our Lady_, written in the
fifteenth century, followed it, and _The Epistola de Contemptu Mundi_, a
letter in Italian by Savonarola, the autograph original of which belonged
to Mr. Fairfax Murray, completed the list of this prolific year. The year
1895 produced only five volumes, the first of them the _Tale of Beowulf_,
which Morris with characteristic daring had translated into verse by the
aid of a prose translation made for him by Mr. A. J. Wyatt. Not himself an
Anglo-Saxon scholar, Morris was unable to give such a rendering of this
chief epic of the Germanic races as would appeal to the scholarly mind,
and his zeal for literal translation led him to employ a phraseology
nothing short of outlandish. At the end of the book he printed a list of
"words not commonly used now," but his constructions were even more
obstructive than his uncommon words. In the following passage, for
example, which opens the section describing the coming of Beowulf to the
land of the Danes, only the word "nithing" is defined in the index, yet
certainly the average reader may be expected to pause for the meaning:
So care that was time-long the kinsman of Healfdene
Still seethed without ceasing, nor might the wise warrior
Wend otherwhere woe, for o'er strong was the strife
All loathly so longsome late laid on the people,
Need-wrack and grim nithing, of night-bales the greatest.
Morris himself found his interest wane before the work was completed, but
he made a handsome quarto volume of it, with fine marginal decorations,
and an exceptionally well-designed title-page. A reprint of _Syr
Percyvelle of Gales_ after the edition printed by J. O. Halliwell from the
MS. in the library of Lincoln Cathedral, a large quarto edition of _The
Life and Death of Jason_; two 16mo volumes of a new romance entitled,
_Child Christopher and Goldilands the Fair_; and Rossetti's _Hand and
Soul_, reprinted from the _Germ_, brought the Press to its great year
1896. This year was to see the completion of the folio _Chaucer_, which
since early in 1892 had been in preparation, and had filled the heart of
Morris with anxiety, anticipation, and joy. Before it came from the press
three other books were issued. Herrick's _Poems_ came first. Then a
selection of thirteen poems from Coleridge, "a muddle-brained
metaphysician, who by some strange freak of fortune turned out a few real
poems amongst the dreary flood of inanity which was his wont!"
The poems chosen were, _Christabel_, _Kubla Khan_, _The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner_, _Love_, _A Fragment of a Sexton's Tale_, _The Ballad of
the Dark Ladie_, _Names_, _Youth and Age_, _The Improvisatore_, _Work
without Hope_, _The Garden of Boccaccio_, _The Knight's Tomb_, and _Alice
du Clos_. The first four were the only ones, however, concerning which
Morris would own to feeling any interest. The Coleridge volume was
followed by the large quarto edition of Morris's latest romance, _The Well
at the World's End_ in two volumes, and then appeared the _Chaucer_, the
mere printing of which had occupied a year and nine months. The first two
copies were brought home from the binders on the second of June, in a
season of "lots of sun" and plentiful apple-blossoms, during which Morris
was beginning to realise that the end of his delight in seasons and in
books was fast approaching.
Mr. Ellis has declared the Kelmscott _Chaucer_ to be, "for typography,
ornament, and illustration combined, the grandest book that has been
issued from the press since the invention of typography." Morris lavished
upon it the utmost wealth of his invention. The drawing of the title-page
alone occupied a fortnight, and the splendid initial letters were each an
elaborate work of art. The ornament indeed was too profuse to be wholly
satisfactory, especially as much of it was repeated; nevertheless, the
book was one of great magnificence and the glee with which Morris beheld
it is not to be wondered at. The Chaucer type had been specially designed
for it, and Burne-Jones had made for it eighty-seven drawings, while
Morris himself designed for it the white pigskin binding with silver
clasps, executed at the Doves Bindery for those purchasers who desired
their elaborate and costly volume in a more suitable garb than the
ordinary half holland covers which gave it the appearance of a silken
garment under a calico apron.
During the remainder of the year 1896 the Press issued the first volumes
of the Kelmscott edition of _The Earthly Paradise_, a volume of Latin
poems (_Laudes Beatae Mariae Virginis_), the first Kelmscott book to be
printed in three colours, the quotation heading each stanza being in red,
the initial letter in pale blue, and the remaining text in black: _The
Floure and the Leafe_ and _The Shepherde's Calender_. Before _The
Shepherde's Calender_ reached its completion, however, Morris was dead,
and the subsequent work of the Press was merely the clearing up of a few
books already advertised. The first of these to appear was the prose
romance by Morris entitled _The Water of the Wondrous Isles_: this was
issued on the first day of April, 1897, with borders and ornaments
designed entirely by Morris save for a couple of initial words completed
from his unfinished designs by R. Catterson-Smith. To this year belong
also the two trial pages made for the intended folio edition of
_Froissart_, the heraldic borders of which far surpass any of the
_Chaucer_ ornaments, and the two old English romances, _Sire Degravaunt_
and _Syr Ysambrace_. In 1898 came a large quarto volume of German
woodcuts, and three more works by Morris, a small folio edition of _Sigurd
the Volsung_, which was to have been a large folio with twenty-five
woodcuts by Burne-Jones; _The Sundering Flood_, the last romance written
by Morris, and a large quarto edition of _Love is Enough_. These were
followed by a "Note" written by Morris himself on his aims in starting the
Kelmscott Press, accompanied with facts concerning the Press, and an
annotated list of all the books there printed, compiled by Mr. S. C.
Cockerell, who, since July, 1894, had been secretary to the Press. This
was the end.[2]
[Illustration: _Specimen Page from the Kelmscott "Froissart"_
(_Projected Edition_)]
Although Morris not only neglected commercial considerations in printing
his books, lavishing their price many times over in valuable time and
labour and the actual expenditure of money to secure some inconspicuous
detail; but defied commercial methods openly in the character of his type,
the quality of his materials, and the slowness of his processes, the
Kelmscott Press testified, as most of his enterprises did testify, to the
practical worth of his ideals. Quite content to make just enough by his
books to continue printing them in the most conscientious and desirable
way he knew, he gradually obtained from them a considerable profit. The
Press had early been moved to quarters larger than the first occupied
by it, and three presses were kept busy. By the end of 1892 Morris had
become his own publisher, and after that time all the Kelmscott books were
published by him except in cases of special arrangement. A few copies,
usually less than a dozen, of nearly all the books were printed on vellum
and sold at a proportionately higher price than the paper copies. The
volumes were bound either in vellum or half holland, these temporary and
unsatisfactory covers probably having been chosen on account of the
strength and slow-drying qualities of the ink used, a note to the
prospectus of the _Chaucer_ stating that the book would not be fit for
ordinary full binding with the usual pressure for at least a year after
its issue. The issue prices charged for the books were not low, but
certainly not exorbitant when time, labour, and expense of producing them
are taken into consideration. They were prizes for the collector from the
beginning, the impossibility of duplicating them and the small editions
sent out giving them a charm and a value not easily to be resisted, and
Morris himself and his trustees adopted measures tending to protect the
collector's interests. After the death of Morris all the woodblocks for
initials, ornaments, and illustrations were sent to the British Museum and
were accepted, with the condition that they should not be reproduced or
printed from for the space of one hundred years. The electrotypes were
destroyed. The matter was talked over with Morris during his lifetime and
he sanctioned this course on the part of the trustees, its aim being to
keep the series of the Kelmscott Press "a thing apart and to prevent the
designs becoming stale by repetition." While there is a fair ground for
the criticism frequently made that a man urging the necessity of art for
the people showed inconsistency by withdrawing from their reach art which
he could control and deemed valuable, it must be remembered that in his
mind the great result to be obtained was the stirring up the people to
making art for themselves. Morris rightly counted the joy to be gained
from making a beautiful thing as far higher than the joy to be gained from
seeing one. He was never in favour of making a work of art "common" by
reproducing or servilely imitating it. He had shown the printers of books
his idea of the way they should manage their craft, now let them develop
it themselves along the lines pointed out for them. And whether he was or
was not consistent in allowing the works of the Kelmscott Press to be cut
off from any possibility of a large circulation, his was the temperament
to feel all the delight to be won from exclusive ownership. He had the
true collector's passion for possession. If he was bargaining for a book,
says his biographer, he would carry on the negotiation with the book
tucked tightly under his arm, as if it might run away. His collection of
old painted books gave him the keenest emotions before and after his
acquisition of them. Of one, which finally proved unattainable, he wrote,
"_Such_ a book! _my_ eyes! and I am beating my brains to see if I can find
any thread of an intrigue to begin upon, so as to creep and crawl toward
the possession of it." It is no matter for wonder if in imagination he
beheld the love of bibliophiles for his own works upon which he had so
ardently spent his energies, and was gratified by the prevision.
Whether the Kelmscott books will increase or decrease in money value as
time goes on is a question that stirs interest in book-buying circles.
They have already had their rise and ebb to a certain extent, and the
prices brought by the copies owned by Mr. Ellis at the sale of his library
after his death indicate that a steady level of interest has been reached
among collectors for the time being at least; only five of the copies
printed on paper exceeding prices previously paid for them. The
presentation copy on vellum of the great _Chaucer_ brought five hundred
and ten pounds, certainly a remarkable sum for a modern book, under any
conditions, and nearly a hundred pounds more than the highest price which
Morris himself up to the summer of 1894 had ever paid for even a
fourteenth-century book. The paper copy of the _Chaucer_ sold at the Ellis
sale for one hundred and twelve pounds and a paper copy in ordinary
binding sold in America in 1902 for $650, while a paper copy in the
special pigskin binding brought $950 the same year. The issue price for
the four hundred and twenty-five paper copies was twenty pounds apiece,
and for the eight copies on vellum offered for sale out of the thirteen
printed, a hundred and twenty guineas apiece. The posthumous edition of
_Sigurd the Volsung_, the paper copies of which were issued at six guineas
apiece, brought at the Ellis sale twenty-six pounds. _News from Nowhere_,
issued at two guineas, has never yet brought a higher price than the five
pounds, fifteen shillings paid for it in 1899, while Keats's _Poems_
issued at one pound, ten shillings, rose as high as twenty-seven pounds,
ten shillings, also in 1899. As a general measure of the advance in the
Kelmscott books since the death of Morris, it may be noted that the series
owned by Mr. Ellis, excluding duplicates, and including a presentation
copy of _Jason_ and two fine bindings for the paper and the vellum
_Chaucer_, represented a gross issue price of six hundred and twelve
pounds, ten shillings, and realised two thousand, three hundred and
sixty-seven pounds, two shillings. For one decade of the life of a modern
series that is a great record, and it would be a rash prophet who should
venture to predict future values.