MORRIS, William. Pre-Raphaelite Ballads. New York: A. Wessels, 1900.
FIRST and LIMITED EDITION, 174/500. (200 x 150 mm), pp. [vii] 22 [iv]. Printed by Clark Conwell at the Elston press with red initials & illustrated with 4 black & white full-page illustrations; 1 red illustration; and full borders with various stylised patters on each page, all by H.M. [Helen Marguerite] O'Kane, baring her signature encircled K (OK) for O Kane. Good. Splotching on cover and loose joint on front cover, spine intact; inside is very clean, with uncut leaves. #174 of a limited run of 500 on Old Stratford paper.
A sweet example of Art Nouveau's debt to Medieval art. Operating from only 1900-1904, and seen as the heirs of the Kelmscott Press legacy, Clark Conwell and H.M. O Kane, the husband-and-wife/ owner-and-illustrator team, produced a mere handfull fine, private press editions, the first of which was William Morris Pre-Raphaelite Ballads. Coupling the pre-Modern-style poem by William Morris textile designer, inspiration for the Arts and Crafts movement, and man of medievalism with the woodblock-esque illustrations by H.M. O Kane, the production is akin to holding a medieval manuscript reflected through an Art Nouveau looking glass. It s an elegant, archaic work which incorporates the rubrication (the use of red letters to draw the attention) One of only two of O Kane s illustrations of Morris work (the other being Five Arthurian Poems, two years later).
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Johnson #1 Notes on the Elston Press, by Herbert H. Johnson, Published by Douglas M. Harris, Wilmington, Delaware, 1997.
See also:
Notes on the Elston Press, by Herbert H. Johnson, Published by Douglas M. Harris, Wilmington, Delaware, 1997.
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