10/22/2014
KELMSCOTT PRESS
'The Nature of Gothic' by John Ruskin
Handmade at The William Morris, Kelmscott Press 1892
only 500 copies printed in 'Golden Type'.
WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896)
In 1891, Morris founded the Kelmscott Press, named after the village near Oxford where he had lived since 1871. The Kelmscott Press produced high quality hand-printed books to be seen and cherished as objects d'art. Morris designed and cut the typefaces, ornamental borders and title pages which were based on the style of medieval manuscripts, while the illustrations were created by the Pre-Raphaelite artist, Edward Burne-Jones. The books were printed on handmade paper, copied from 15th century Italian samples, and bound in vellum.
Although Morris looked to the past for inspiration, his aims anticipate modernist ideas on typography and layout: 'I began printing books with the hope of producing some which would have a definite claim to beauty, while at the same time they should be easy to read and should not dazzle the eye......I found I had to consider chiefly the following things: the paper, the form of the type, the relative spacing of the letters, the words, and the lines; and lastly the position of the printed matter on the page'.
The Nature of Gothic...A chapter from 'The Stones of Venice'...Morris, who wrote the preface praising the book, had been greatly inspired by Ruskin whose writings influenced the Arts and Crafts movement by encouraging the revival of Gothic art and architecture.
