£650
FIRST TRADE EDITION, NO. 49 OF 50 COPIES, 4to, pp. [ii], vi, 250, [2]. Printed on Whatman’s paper. Untrimmed in original cloth, printed paper label to spine. A few minor spots. Cloth a little toned, endpapers browned, spine ends a touch worn, label sometime replaced with one of the spares tipped in at rear.
First published by the author's own Kelmscott Press the previous year, this is the first trade edition of Morris's pioneering fantasy novel. The standard version, on hand-made paper in red cloth, is easy enough to find, but this limited issue, done in an issue of just 50 copies on mould-made Whatman's paper, is significantly rarer even than the private press edition, the print run of which was over seven times as large. The Chiswick Press printed the book in an attractive but unadorned arrangement, the overall effect being 'in a manner a compromise between the Kelmscott style and the conventional style' (Buxton Foreman, The Books of William Morris, p. 178).
