Beschreibung:

A Collection of 30 specimen and trial leaves. [London: 1892-95.] 30 specimen and trial leaves for works from the Kelmscott press, many printed to accompany the announcements of the publication of a work. 4to and folio. Items 2-8 loose in a modern cloth box; the collection comprising: 1) "Vitas Patrum: being St. Jerome's Lives of the Fathers of the Desert" [Unpublished.], in Golden type, [late February 1894.]. Specimen leaf, p.75, from the abandoned edition. Small 4to. 285 x 210mm. The leaf bound with the Prospectus and order form for the work. Modern morocco backed boards, morocco title lettering-piece on upper cover. Peterson B3 and D1 (5). 500 copies of the Prospectus and leaf were sent out in February 1894, but the response was muted and the project abandoned. Rare at auction, just 10 copies in the last 50 years. 2) Sidonia the Sorceress. An uncut 4-leaf trial quire, pp 21-28, 8 woodcut initials. [1893.] 4to. Full sheet size 575 x 410 mm. Not recorded in Peterson, who lists D1(3) a single specimen leaf. 3) "The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye", a bifolia of 2 trial leaves, pp 547-550. [1892.] 4to. Clean paper-flaw tear at the lower margin of pp 547/548. Not in Peterson. This not the Quaritch specimen leaves, described as Peterson D1 (1). 4) Beowulf, 5 trial leaves, [1895] (leaves 49/50 (2 copies), 61/62, 6364 (2 copies), 4to. Annotated at lower margin in ?Morris's hand Beowulf. Horizontal creases as if folded into an envelope. See Peterson A32 Related Materials b. but not listed as a specimen page. Possibly from the Saks sale, lot 140. 5) "Godefrey of Boloyne", 2 specimen leaves, printed one side only. [April 1893]. 4to, comprising [page 415], with 2 6-line woodcut initials, and another leaf starting,Now the Turkes of Arabe... Peterson D1(2) and (2a), 6) Ruskin, John. Nature of Gothic. 8 trial leaves, comprising an uncut quire of pp 85-92, 2 bifolia 17/18, 31/32, and pp23-36. [1892]. 8vo. Not in Peterson. 7) Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Ballads and Narrative Poems. 5 trial leaves, comprising a 4 leaf opening quire including the title, and a duplicate half-title. [1893]. 8vo. Not in Peterson. 8) Morris, William. Poems by the Way. [1891]. 8vo. 2 trial leaves presented as a bifolia pp.193/194 with 2 blanks. 9) Tennyson, William. Maud. [1893]. 8vo. A printed cancel leaf for pp 15/16. A fine and rare collection of specimen and trial leaves from the Kelmscott Press, many of the trial leaves not noted by Peterson. Some of these specimen pages may derive from the Saks sale, lot 181.