Spenser's Faerie Queene

London: Published by George Allen, 1897. The Most Important Work Illustrated by Walter Crane,
One of 1,000 Copies Printed on Handmade Paper

[CRANE, Walter, illustrator]. SPENSER, [Edmund]. Spenser's Faerie Queene. A Poem in Six Books, with the Fragment Mutabilitie. Edited by Thomas J. Wise. Pictured by Walter Crane. London: Published by George Allen, 1897.

First edition illustrated by Walter Crane. One of 1,000 copies printed on handmade paper, out of a total edition of 1,028 copies. Originally issued in nineteen parts, with wrappers also designed by Crane. Six quarto volumes (10 11/16 x 8 5/8 inches; 272 x 220 mm.). Double-page general title in Volume I, seven title-pages (Volume I dated 1894, Volumes II-III dated 1895, and Volumes IV-XI dated 1896), and eighty-eight full-page woodcut illustrations (including one double-page). With 132 head- and tail-pieces, numerous decorative initials, and printer's and publisher's colophons. Printed by the Chiswick Press.

Bound by Zaehnsdorf (stamp-signed in gilt on the front turn-in) in full dark green crushed morocco. Covers decoratively tooled in gilt to match the original cover design, spines decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt board edges and turn-ins, green watered silk doublures and liners, top edge gilt, others uncut. Zaehnsdorf exhibition stamp in gilt on rear doublure. Original pink printed wrappers bound in. Spines uniformly faded, otherwise a fine set.

"The most important work in the whole long list of books illustrated by Walter Crane... If Crane's claim to greatness were based entirely on this work, he would still retain his position in the front rank of nineteenth-century artists. The wealth of ideas and forms, real and fantastic, which are embodied in the actual illustrations, and even more in the marvellous decorative border designs, is almost incredible! Besides the numberless presentments of the human figure in all its manly vigour and womanly grace, the whole range of nature's forms, of animal and plant life, of fabulous, mythological inventions, of allegorical personifications, are worked into decorative designs of exquisite beauty. It would be petty, nay foolish, to try to find fault with certain very obvious shortcomings as regards anatomical drawing in a work which does not only stand unique as pure decoration, but speaks of an amount of knowledge and a wealth of imagination that command unrestricted admiration and respect" (Konody, p. 71).

Ashley V, p. 196. Engen, Crane, p. 102. Massé, pp. 47-48.