Kelmscott Press edition of 'Syr Perecyvelle of Gales'

In 1895 William Morris’s Kelmscott Press printed ‘Syr Perecyvelle of Gales’, a tale of the Arthurian knight Percival, based on a story from a fifteenth-century manuscript. The following year Morris printed two further stories from the same manuscript ‘Sire Degrevaunt’ and ‘Syr Ysambrace’, each featuring a woodcut frontispiece based on an illustration by Edward Burne-Jones.

Burne-Jones’s illustration in this book shows a young Percival embraced by his mother in their thatched forest home. In the story, Percival has a secluded upbringing in the woods after his mother is widowed and seeks to protect her son from the outside world. However, at the age of 15 he sees a group of knights riding past his home and decides to travel to King Arthur’s court and become a knight himself.

The Kelmscott Press printed 350 copies of each of these Arthurian stories on hand-made paper, and 8 copies of each on vellum. They are all printed in Chaucer typeface in black and red ink and feature woodcut initials and decorative borders designed by Morris.