Description
London: Folio Society, 2018. Limited to 750 hand-numbered copies. Hardcover in slipcase. LIKE NEW/in slipcase, no dj as issued. Floral illustrations by Beatrice Pagden from the copy in the Morgan Library.. LIKE NEW, unread, very solid slipcase with very light bump on one lower corner. -- Ships from Hawaii with free Priority Mail upgrade. -- No. 171 of an edition limited to 750 hand-numbered copies Hand-bound in leather blocked in gold on front, back, spine and doublures Metallic gold page edges on all sides 152 pages Abundant floral illustrations by Beatrice Pagden Introductory note by John Bidwell Slipcase covered in teal cloth blocked in gold 9˝ x 5¾˝ -- Meticulously produced facsimile of William Morris's poetic masterpiece. Illustrated on every page and fully bound in leather blocked in gold. Housed in The Morgan Library & Museum in New York is a rarely-seen jewel of Arts and Crafts book production - a personalized copy of William Morris's poetic masterpiece Love is Enough, hand-illustrated on every page with vibrant floral watercolors by Beatrice Pagden and strikingly bound by the legendary Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson for its original owner, Morris's publisher and confidant, Frederick Startridge Ellis. -- Every element of this unique volume has now been recreated for the first time in our meticulous facsimile: the fresh colors of the beautiful illustrations, the luxurious binding (including the tiny signature, 18 C-S 87, that is blocked on the rear doublure), and even the feel of its pages. The result is a breath-taking combination of text, illustration and case that perfectly embodies Morris's vision of the 'beautiful book'. -- To preserve this treasure, Ellis commissioned a stunning tan morocco binding from Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson, a leading light in the emerging Arts and Crafts movement and a renowned perfectionist. Cobden-Sanderson was so proud of the binding - with its elegant gilt-tooled rose and flower pattern framing Ellis's initials on the front cover and the date it was created on the back - that the book was displayed in the very first exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Society in 1888, as an example of both the movementʼs ideals and of his own finest work. 'No glimpse of the inner life of Morris was ever vouchsafed even to his closest friends... It is a subject on which he never spoke except in Love is Enough.' May Morris Love is Enough is now recognized as Morris's most self-revealing work. He started writing it at the end of 1871, immediately after his return from a cathartic expedition to Iceland, undertaken to escape life in a strained ménage à trois with his wife, Jane, and her lover, the pre-Raphaelite painter-poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Seen in this light, the emotional turmoil of Pharamond, his gruelling journey in search of peace and fulfilment, his encounter with a usurper and his faith in the all-conquering power of love take on an intensely personal meaning. 'Illustrations should not have a mere accidental connection with the other ornaments and the type, but an essential and artistic connection.' William Morris As he worked on Love is Enough, Morris was also immersed in the medieval manuscript tradition, and producing his own handwritten and illuminated texts, including his exquisite manuscript of The Odes of Horace. His initial intention was that the first edition of Love is Enough would be a printed version of these 'painted books', the text framed by borders of entwined foliage and flowers, richly illustrated with woodcuts by his friend, Edward Burne-Jones, and enhanced with hand-applied colour and gilding. When this over-ambitious visual scheme had to be abandoned, Morris went to the other extreme, stripping away all the decorative elements and leaving the poem unadorned. When Love is Enough appeared in 1873, the front cover was decorated and there was a single vignette designed by Burne-Jones. But one copy of this first edition, now a treasure of the Morgan Library, fulfilled Morris's unrealised pictorial vision. One of just 25 'large paper' volumes produced for private circulation, it originally belonged to Frederick Startridge Ellis, Morris's publisher and one of the greatest bibliophiles of the 19th century. And in an extraordinary labour of love, all 135 pages of Morris's text were exquisitely illustrated for Ellis by his niece, Beatrice Pagden. Surrounding, and occasionally spilling over, her hand-ruled margins are stylized swathes of tumbling foliage, and a multitude of flowers and wild fruits that recall the original cover design and Morris's imagined ornamental borders. The whole scheme is carefully thought through, with Pagdenʼs images relating directly to Morris's text, or symbolizing the themes of the passage they adorn. Each design is painted with painstaking attention to detail, with scarcely any species repeated, and with every flower seen from several different angles, and from fresh bud through to full bloom.
