Golden Cockerel Press

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales ... with wood engravings by Eric Gill. Waltham Saint Lawrence, Berkshire: 1929-1931



4 volumes bound in 2, folio (12 x 7 ¼ in.; 305 x 185 mm), deckled edges. Wood-engraved illustrations. Three-quarter green morocco and marbled boards, gold-stamped “cockerel” on upper covers, in a green cloth drop box.

Joanna Brigid Mary Gill (bookplate in each volume)

Chanticleer 63

Inscribed by gill in his elegant italic to his daughter “Joanna Brigid-Mary Gill from E.G. 25.12.’29.” This is no. 382 of 485 copies printed.

A fine copy of the most desirable work of the Golden Cockerel Press -- a printing project directed by Robert and Moira Gibbings that took three and a half years. Eric Gill's wood engravings occupy nearly every page: more than two dozen half-page engravings; more than 200 decorative borders; and numerous initials in black, red, and blue throughout. Gill engraved one hundred and sixty blocks for the book. As determined by Skelton these were: 6 illustrations, 25 illustrations with initials, 5 initial letters, 8 tail-pieces, 3 line-fillings and 6 sprays.

Among the typefaces Gill designed is “Joanna,” named for his daughter.