Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1893. Hardcover. One of 1500 copies. This copy is in an exquisite binding from master Chicago binder Alfred J. Cox (1835-1909). Cox founded a bindery in Chicago in the 1860s that became the largest commercial bindery west of the Mississippi River. Cox was also a serious book collector who bound many books in his personal collection in sumptuous designer bindings. His philosophy was that "books of the imagination...demand rich morocco, fanciful ornaments, and gilding. This binding exemplifies his philosophy. It is in brown morocco with a beautiful gilt flower design on the front and rear covers, with gilt ruling around the edges. The spine has five raised bands with title, author, and ornaments in the compartments. The dentelles also have a lovely gilt floral design. With marbled endpapers. The book's colophon states that Gothic Architecture, first given as a lecture for the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society in the year 1889, was printed by the Kelmscott Press during the Society’s exhibition in 1893. It is printed in Golden type on Flower paper, and was the first book printed in 16mo. by the press. According to William Peterson's A Bibliography of the Kelmscott Press (p. 48-51), “there were three impressions of the book, presumably of 500 copies each.” There were two misspellings in the first impression. “Van Eyck “ was misspelled “Van Eyk” (p. 45, l.1.), and “guilds was spelled “gilds” (p. 41, l. 16). This copy has the correct spellings of these two words and is from the second or third impression. There are four and six line initials and red shoulder notes throughout. Light paper aging along fore-edge otherwise near fine. MOR/052223. Near Fine. More