The Nature of Gothic by Ruskin, John; Morris, William (1834—1896) (preface) - 1892: A Chapter of the Stones of Venice

First Printing. Printed by William Morris, and sold by George Allen. Small 4to. Bound in publisher's original limp vellum by J. & J. Leighton, with silk ties supplied by Morris & Co., with gilt titles to spine. One of 500 [at thirty shillings] paper copies (plus none on vellum). Printed on fine, hand-made, Batchelor paper, with yapped edges. Uncut, deckled edges. Colophon and smaller, rectangular printer's device designed by Morris (no. 1) twice (at front and back). [viii], 1 (title), 5 (preface), 127, 1 (appendix/colophon) [vi] pp.
Printed with the Golden type designed by Morris for his press. Elaborate woodcut border on opening page; nine 10- and numerous 6-line woodcut initials all designed by Morris and engraved by William Harcourt Hooper, along with 19 architectural figures.
A handsome printing of the chapter from Ruskin's THE STONES OF VENICE, with a 5-page preface by Morris dated February 15. issued March 22, l892.
John Ruskin (1819–1900) had a strong influence on William Morris and the arts and crafts movement. One can assume that this work must have been an important one for William Morris, who stated in the preface, "In future days [this work] will be considered as one of the very few necessary and inevitable utterances of the century." "This chapter of THE STONES OF VENICE (1853), which Ruskin always considered the most important in the book, was first printed separately in 1854 as a sixpenny pamphlet. Morris paid more than one tribute to it in Hopes and Fears for Art." [Sparling]. "This chapter of THE STONES OF VENICE had previously been reprinted as a 4d. pamphlet by F.J. Furnivall on the occasion of the opening of the Working Men's College in 1853. Cook and Wedderburn, in their Library Edition of Ruskin's Works, add the following bibliographical note: 'The Kelmscott edition was set up from the 1886 edition of the complete work, and some misprints which crept into that issue are repeated.'" [Peterson]. From the collection of John Carrol Collins. [Peterson A4; Tomkinson pp. 108–109.
Bookplate of Noel Ledbrook Griffith. Some soiling to vellum. Three of the four ribbon ties are detached but present. Unopened. Condition overall: Very Good.