A Book of Verse. A facsimile of the manuscript in the Victoria and Albert Museum London.

One of 62 copies bound in vellum, from a total edition of 325 copies. Facsimile after an original manuscript by William Morris, with titles and various initials in gilt, blue and red throughout, along with illustrations and floral borders in multiple colours throughout after Edward Burne-Jones, Charles Fairfax Murray, William Morris and George Wardle. Out of series copy. Large 8vo., 21 x 28cm, pp. [i - vi], 1 - 51, [52 - 56]. Publisher's original full vellum with repeating gilt tooled pattern, upper board with 'G.B.J' lettered in gilt, spine lettered in gilt, including publishers' prospectus loosely tipped in and all together in publishers green cloth slipcase. Yorkshire, Scolar Press. 

Fine. A fantastically produced facsimile of Morris' first major calligraphic manuscript, now housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which he produced for Georgiana Burne-Jones. Described as 'a tangle of swift delicate pen-work in brown with leaves and flowers lightly painted in thin colour' by May Morris, the manuscript is positively bursting with floral patterns, with the text of Morris' poems seeming to nestle between outcroppings of foliage. The manuscript was very much a collaborative project, with one miniature contributed by Edward Burne-Jones and others by Charles Fairfax Murray, who worked as a glass painter for Morris & Co., and ornaments by George Wardle, a draughtsman for Morris who cut several blocks for the aborted Earthly Paradise and went on to be general manager of Morris' firm. 

Stock Code: 231289