Collection

The works of Geoffrey Chaucer

On exhibit

1896

No. 33173

From the end of 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, there were movements in various fields to reevaluate the value of handcrafted goods in order to address the mass production of inferior goods of daily necessities after the Industrial Revolution. In the field of printing and publishing, private press (privately printed books), which were clearly distinct from books that were mass produced books with machines, emerged mainly in the U.K. It can be said that one of the pioneers of these books was the Kelmscott Press. William Morris, a president, advocated the arts and crafts movement to revive the value of handwork. He carried out publishing as one avenue to put his philosophy into practice. He took the books from the early days of letterpress printing in the 15th to 16th centuries for example, and he challenged the world asking what the ideal book was by publishing books made with paper, movable-types, woodcut illustrations, typesetting, and binding being carefully selected in every detail.