The Faerie Queene: A Poem in Six Books.

SPENSER, Edmund; Illustrated by Walter Crane.

Item Number: 13005

London: George Allen, 1894-1897.

First edition illustrated by Walter Crane. One of 1,000 copies on handmade paper. Six quarto volumes, bound in full green morocco by Zaehnsdorf for Asprey with decorative gilt triple ruled boards,  raised spine bands with gilt titles, rules and floral devices; top edges gilt, gilt board edges and inside dentelles, and silk endpapers. Each part’s original pictorial wrapper front bound in with one original wrapper back at the end of each volume. Double-page general title (dated 1897), seven title-pages (dated 1894-1896), and eighty-eight full-page woodcut illustrations (including one double-page). With numerous head- and tail-pieces, decorative initials, and printer’s and publisher’s colophons. An exceptional presentation.

The Faerie Queene, illustrated by Walter Crane, is one of the most beautiful works of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Walter Crane was already a well-established illustrator, artist and wood-engraver when he embarked on his most ambitious project – the illustration and decoration of the longest poem in the English language.