[Kelmscott Press] A Note by William Morris on His Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press

Morris, William. A Note by William Morris on His Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press, together with a short description of the press by S.C. Cockerell, & an anonotated list of the books printed thereat. Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1898. Limited to 525 copies on Flower paper. Printed in Golden type, title and first page with woodcut foliate border and illustration by Morris after Burne-Jones, text printed in red and black, woodcut foliate initials by Hooper after Morris, woodcut press device after Morris. Original holland-backed blue boards [by J. & J. Leighton]. Measures approx. 5.75" x 8.25". List of publications by the Hammersmith Publishing Society loosely inserted. Some light marks to boards and minor shelfwear. 

"Cockerell, secretary of the Kelmscott Press and Morris' literary executor (who supervised the Kelmscott Press after his death), fittingly chose A Note by William Morris as the final Kelmscott Press publication. The frontispiece was originally executed in the 1860s for an unfinished work, The Earthly Paradise. Morris' essay on the press first appeared in Modern Art, a Boston magazine, in 1896; Peterson describes it as an 'undeniably important document', noting Newdigate's comment in 1924 that it is 'one of the three books that every student of English book-production ought to read' (Peterson, Kelmscott Press. A History, Oxford: 1991, p.3). The work was edited by Cockerell and supplemented by his 'annotated list' which is the first bibliographical conspectus of the press's work" (Christies).