# Is "The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (the Kelmscott Chaucer)" by Geoffrey Chaucer (designed by William Morris; illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (the Kelmscott Chaucer) by Geoffrey Chaucer (designed by William Morris; illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones) (Kelmscott Press, Hammersmith, 1896) is identified by: The colophon is the anchor point: printed by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, Upper Mall, Hammersmith, in the County of Middlesex, "finished on the 8th day of May, 1896"; publication followed in June 1896 (sources differ on the exact June day, so cite the colophon date, not the publication day). This is a first edition thus, not a first edition of Chaucer — the text is a fourteenth-century author's, and the Kelmscott is the first Kelmscott Press printing of the collected Works in the Ellis text.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The colophon is the anchor point: printed by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, Upper Mall, Hammersmith, in the County of Middlesex, "finished on the 8th day of May, 1896"; publication followed in June 1896 (sources differ on the exact June day, so cite the colophon date, not the publication day)
- Printed in black and red in two columns in Morris's Chaucer type, with the titles of the longer poems in Troy type; text edited by F. S. Ellis
- Contains 87 woodcut illustrations designed by Edward Burne-Jones and engraved on wood by W. H. Hooper, plus 14 large borders, 18 frames, 26 initials and an ornamental woodcut title designed by Morris
- 556 pages
- Total edition 438 copies: 425 on paper and 13 on vellum
- The sheets carry no printed limitation number, so the count is a bibliographic record rather than a statement in the book — do not expect a numbered leaf
- Publisher imprint reads Kelmscott Press, Hammersmith

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Geoffrey Chaucer (designed by William Morris; illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones) |
| Publisher | Kelmscott Press, Hammersmith |
| Year | 1896 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The colophon is the anchor point: printed by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, Upper Mall, Hammersmith, in the County of Middlesex… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Folio. The colophon is the anchor point: printed by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, Upper Mall, Hammersmith, in the County of Middlesex, "finished on the 8th day of May, 1896"; publication followed in June 1896 (sources differ on the exact June day, so cite the colophon date, not the publication day). Printed in black and red in two columns in Morris's Chaucer type, with the titles of the longer poems in Troy type; text edited by F. S. Ellis. Contains 87 woodcut illustrations designed by Edward Burne-Jones and engraved on wood by W. H. Hooper, plus 14 large borders, 18 frames, 26 initials and an ornamental woodcut title designed by Morris; 556 pages. Total edition 438 copies: 425 on paper and 13 on vellum. The sheets carry no printed limitation number, so the count is a bibliographic record rather than a statement in the book — do not expect a numbered leaf. Standard trade binding is holland-backed (quarter linen) blue-grey boards with a printed paper spine label, edges uncut, by J. & J. Leighton. Roughly 50 copies (about 48 on paper, 2 on vellum) were bound at the Doves Bindery under T. J. Cobden-Sanderson in full alum-tawed white pigskin over wooden boards to Morris's design, elaborately blind-stamped with metal clasps, edges gilt on the rough, and normally signed in blind and dated 1897 on the lower pastedown.

## Is this the true first?
This is a first edition thus, not a first edition of Chaucer — the text is a fourteenth-century author's, and the Kelmscott is the first Kelmscott Press printing of the collected Works in the Ellis text. There is no UK-vs-US or original-language precedence question: the book was printed and published only at Hammersmith in 1896, with no contemporaneous American issue, so the Kelmscott Press printing is the only edition at stake. The census framing of it as an anchor of private-press collecting is confirmed; the framing as a straightforward 'first edition' is not, and the record should say first edition thus.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue exists, but facsimiles dominate and are the real trap. The Basilisk Press (London, 1974-75) facsimile was issued in 515 copies in two volumes — the Chaucer plus a separately written Companion Volume by Duncan Robinson — printed letterpress by the John Roberts Press on paper made to match Batchelor's handmade stock, bound in red-and-white Liberty 'Larkspur' floral cloth after a Morris pattern with spine labels, in a blue publisher's slipcase. The Companion Volume, the Liberty floral cloth, and the Basilisk imprint are immediate tells; nothing about the 1896 original is floral-cloth bound or accompanied by a companion volume. The Folio Society (2002) facsimile, limited to 1,010 copies, was photographed from a Basilisk copy. Also in circulation: modern leather-bound 'deluxe' reprints numbered out of 1,896 with a certificate of authenticity — the 1,896 is the year repurposed as an edition size and is a reprint marker, never a Kelmscott point — and the Pomegranate colouring book.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (the Kelmscott Chaucer)* by Geoffrey Chaucer (designed by William Morris; illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-works-of-geoffrey-chaucer-the-kelmscott-chaucer
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.