8vo (207 x 140 mm). Printed in Chaucer type in red and black, woodcut frontispiece designed by Edward Burne-Jones, facing page with border, numerous initials, COMPLETELY HAND-ILLUMINATED AND HEIGHTENED IN GILT (very minor marginal toning to preliminary leaves, toning to first text page). Early 20th century red crushed morocco gilt, spine in 6 compartments with 5 raised bands, full red gilt morocco doublures, watered silk free endpapers, stamp-signed by The French Binders (minor restoration along joints, rear silk moire endpaper crudely repaired, minor bump to lower right corner of front board); folding case. Provenance: Sir Emery Walker (1851-1933), English engraver, photographer, and printer (ownership bookplate printed by the Kelmscott Press).

EMERY WALKER'S COPY WITH HAND-ILLUMINATED INITIALS AND DECORATIONS GORGEOUSLY EXECUTED BY THE FRENCH BINDERS.

LIMITED EDITION, one of 350 copies on flower paper. Syr Perecyvelle of Gales is a Middle English Arthurian tale which derives its text from the Lincoln Thornton Manuscript (Lincoln Cathedral MS 91), referring to a collection of Arthurian tales recorded by English landowner and scribe Robert Thornton ca. 1440. Though the Lincoln Thornton Manuscript contains the only contemporary written version of the tale known, its opening lines were parodied in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, suggesting that Chaucer himself was familiar with a version similar to that recorded by Thornton. In addition to Syr Pereceyvelle of Gales, the Kelmscott Press printed only two other tales from the Lincoln Thornton Manuscript - Sire Degrevaunt and Syr Ysambrace, both after Morris's death in 1896.

A SUPERB ASSOCIATION COPY.

The present copy bears the bookplate printed by the Kelmscott Press of Sir Emery Walker, a close friend of William Morris's whose collection of medieval typefaces inspired Morris to found the Kelmscott Press in 1891 and who provided early financial support to the operation. Following Morris's death in 1896 Walker partnered with printer Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson to found the Doves Press, considered along with the Kelmscott Press to be among the most significant contributors to the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The illumination work is believed to have been carried out at the time of rebinding by The French Binders, which included former members of The Club Bindery Léon Maillard and Henry Hardy and was established in the 1920s as in-house bookbinders for Doubleday & Company. The Club Bindery was founded in 1898 by members of The Grolier Club, and is considered to be the first fine bookbinding firm established in the United States. Peterson, A33; Ransom, Private Presses and Their Books, p. 328.

[With]: A group of letters and ephemera associated with the Kelmscott Press, comprising:

1) BURNE-JONES, Edward, Sir. Partial autograph note signed ("EBJ") on The Grange letterhead purportedly to William Morris, expressing anxiety over the recipient's health. 1p., 8vo, (178 x 114 mm). In full: "...if it is foggy tomorrow, or if you are still weak and tired [illegible] out have no scruple to send me word early and I will get to other things, it will be quite easy for me. Nothing must be done to make you ill, and another day in bed might make you well. Your affectionate and anxious old friend." Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) was a British Pre-Raphaelite artist and closest friend to William Morris, often called upon by Morris to provide woodcuts for Kelmscott Press publications (including the present lot), his most famous being his work for the Kelmscott Chaucer in 1896.

2) COCKERELL, Sydney, Sir. Autograph note signed ("Sydney Cockerell") on Kelmscott Press letterhead to Gabriel Mourey, Hammersmith, 18 April 1896. 1p., 8vo (178 x 114 mm). In full: "Mr. Morris asks me to say that he will be pleased to see you on Tuesday next at 4 p.m. I am sorry to say that he has been ill for some time, though he is now much better. He is going into the country on Wednesday." Gabriel Mourey (1865-1943) was a French novelist and translator who was a strong supporter of the Arts and Crafts movement and of Morris in particular. In 1889, he published the first French translation of Edgar Allan Poe's collected poems. Sir Sydney Cockerell was brother to noted bookbinder and author Douglas Cockerell and served as personal secretary to William Morris from 1891 to Morris's death five years later. He would serve as Thomas Hardy's executor upon his death in 1928.

3) ELLIS, Frederick Startridge. Autograph letter signed ("F.S. Ellis") on The Red House letterhead to unknown recipient, Chelston, 3 April 1889. 3pp., 8vo (213 x 137 mm). In part: "I have returned and have put one or two [illegible] in the margins and have made a few corrections which I have no doubt however you would have made - or probably have already made in your corrected proof. It is not without hesitation and trepidation that I venture to ask whether you do not do an injustice to so great a man as Bacon in seeming to depreciate him..."

4) Printed advertisement for sale of works by the Kelmscott Press following the closure of the operation. 1p., 8vo, (216 x 140 mm).