Morris, William

8vo, FIRST EDITION, ONE OF TWENTY-FIVE COPIES ON WHATMAN PAPER, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO EDWARD BURNE-JONES ("Edward Burne Jones | from WM | Dec: 3rd. 1876") on half-title, original paper-backed grey boards, remnants of printed lettering piece on spine, collector's folding black morocco-backed box, some occasional spotting, professionally recased with new spine, front free endpaper becoming loose

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1989) (inscription); Sir Hugh Walpole (1884-1941) (bookplate)

Buxton-Forman 43 (see note on p. 88)

A SIGNIFICANT ASSOCIATION COPY OF THE WORK MORRIS CONSIDERED HIS "MASTERPIECE" (see A Note by William Morris, London, 1898, p. 57).

The Story of Sigurd the Volsung would later become one of Burne-Jones' long-standing artistic projects: a Kelmscott Press edition was in development by the end of 1891 but Burne-Jones only agreed to illustrate "with great reluctance", according to Peterson. In 1896 Burne-Jones complained that "the fine things in it are so much fitter for literature than for my art, and I've no turn for the dramatic" (see Peterson, A Bibliography of The Kelmscott Press, Oxford, 1984, p. 135). After Morris' death the Kelmscott edition was published in 1898 with only two illustrations by Burne-Jones.