The Well at the World's End by William Morris - 1896

The Kelmscott Press, Hammersmith; 1896. Good condition. Limited Edition, 1 of 350. Illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones.

This extremely rare book is bound in contemporary cloth backed boards, rather than the original vellum as is usual for this limited edition. Inside, the pages are printed in Chaucer type onto Batchelor hand-made paper with the primrose watermark. It includes four woodcut illustrations by Edward Burne-Jones as well as title and woodcut borders, with full pages, side, half three-quarter and centre woodcut borders and many woodcut initials [Peterson A39]. It is beautifully done, and a real work of art.

The spine is frayed and splitting and there is bumping to the board corners and spine ends with some general rubbing and some loss to the title on the spine. There is some separating from the spine, and library stamps and labels at the front of the book and occasional text leaves. This is the copy that was gifted to Croydon Public Libraries by William Morris's Wife in 1897 in his memory. Apart from these marks, the pages are in remarkable condition, showing very little signs of ageing at all, just the occasional spotting as to be expected.

This novel was one of the last to be printed by William Morris before his death in October 1896 and it had a hugely significant influence on fantasy literature, including many popular authors such as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. It is possibly one of the most important fantasy works ever written and extremely hard to come by. This is a lovely and incredibly rare book that, with a little tlc to it's binding, would be the pièce de résistance of any rare book collection.