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ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED OF ALL FINE PRESS BOOKS; ILLUSTRATED BY ERIC GILL
CHAUCER, Geoffrey.
The Canterbury Tales ONE OF 485 COPIES (out of a total edition of 500) on hand-made paper of the magnificent Golden Cockerel edition of The Canterbury Tales, illustrated with wood engravings by Eric Gill; one of the most beautiful books produced in the 20th century. “Gill's wood-engraving burgeoned in the mid-1920s. At Capel he began printing his own engravings, experimenting with a copperplate press, and he started an enormously successful and enjoyable collaboration with Robert Gibbings, proprietor of the Golden Cockerel Press, and his wife, Moira.” The Canterbury Tales, arguably the most successful production from the press, is a lavish and stunning production, illustrated by Gill with decorated borders on almost every page, one full-page illustration, 29 half-page illustrations, and 61 initial letters printed in blue, red and black.
Colin Franklin has
described the borders as incorporating leaf and stem, "yet among the
leaves, hiding or beckoning, climbing or leaning out, are girls and men,
kings and boys, priests and nuns who take part or seem to be commenting
upon stories. A young man is whistling across the page, two fingers at
his mouth, to a girl; Chaucer himself waves to a little god of love
facing across his own poem; Pan blows pipes and a naked girl, hearing
him, prepares to climb her tree; a nineteen-twentyish girl climbs up,
and a sad young bearded man looking like Robert Gibbings sits,
supporting the whole tree’s weight, opposite; Chaucer is writing with
confidence under the leaves, taking it down by dictation from the
naughty spirit looking down and over the lines. So the pattern
continues, affectionate and cheeky, erotic, enjoyable and relevant,
decorative and explanatory, a balance of taste and eye" (Private
Presses).
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