A Harmonious Work of Art The Collection in the University of Melbourne Library

by Merete Smith, Curator, Rare Books, the University of Melbourne Library

he University of Melbourne This collection has been built up of the books was invariably the best Library has a magnificent largely from the generous donation of possible. The Poynton Collection now Tcollection of Kelmscott Press Dr. J. Orde Poynton, who has celebrated consists of close to 15,000 volumes in a books, donated by Dr. Orde Poynton. his 90th birthday during this centenary multiplicity of areas. year of Morris' death. Whereas this How the collection came to be in the Dr. Poynton's interest in William Kelmscott Press donation would suffice Library, and some reasons why it forms Morris started early; he read his first to give lasting fame to any book collec- such a special part of the Library's col- Kelmscott Press book, The Well at the tor, the Poynton donation spans much lection are the subjects of this paper. World's End in the beautiful library of more. It started with a gift of 850 vol- Marlborough College where he was It is one of the strongest Kelmscott umes and 50 paintings, drawings and educated.4 William Morris had been to Press collections in Australia and unique prints. These were given to the that same school between 1848 and in containing several copies of many University in 1958, and arrived in the 1851, but appears to have been much titles. This makes the collection particu- Library in 1959 to transform completely less happy there than the young Orde larly valuable to printing historians, as the fairly insignificant Rare Book col- Poynton was in the early decades of the this makes it possible to trace the print- lection of the Library and eventually 20th century. Dr. Poynton does not ing process in detail. make it one of the foremost collections know whether the book was personally of its kind in the country. Since 1958 a Many of the books were exhibited donated by Morris or not, but the expe- large number of "installments" of the as part of the Morris exhibition held in rience fostered his interest. the University Gallery from 2 Poynton Collection have arrived. For September to 11 October 1996. 1 The many years the arrival of Poynton dona- Dr. John Orde Poynton was born on exhibition represented a collaboration tions was an annual event. The number the 9th April 1906 in London and edu- between the Gallery, the Department of of books donated each year varied - cated at Marlborough College, Caius Fine Arts Department and Rare Books at with, for instance, 8,000 books arriving College Cambridge and Charing Cross the University Library. 2 in 1971, 570 in 1986 - but the condition Hospital, and those three institutions During the five and a half years of its existence the Kelmscott Press pub- lished 54 books, an impressive output for any private press. William Morris (1834-1896) came to printing late in life after a long and successful career span- ning a multitude of other arts and crafts. The first Kelmscott Press book was not published until 1891. 3 Nevertheless, printing and book production were mat- ters of the utmost importance to Morris. The University of Melbourne Library is fortunate to hold an impres- sive collection of books published by the Kelmscott Press. Of the 54 titles, the University Library holds 40, 26 of Kelmscott Press titles on display at the exhibition of Morris's work held at the which have two or more copies with University Gallery (from the collections of the University of Melbourne Library). binding or other variants. Photo: Michael Silver have continued to show in his collecting represented. The Scott Collection of designer and he brought his great interests in various ways (for instance a approximately 2,500 volumes, all by knowledge of, and skill in, design to London Collection and a small but sig- and about Sir Walter Scott ranks bear on every page that was printed". 7 nificant Cambridge Collection). After a amongst the best Scott collections in the position as Senior Resident Medical world, and Dr. Poynton also donated Dr. Poynton's interest has not just Officer at the Charing Cross Hospital, significant collections of other English been in the book as an object, but also Dr. Poynton served as Health Officer, authors, notably Laurence Sterne and in Morris as a poet and story-teller. In Research Officer and Pathologist in var- Lord Byron. The focus of the collection his paper, Dr. Poynton expressed admi- ious appointments around Malaya and in as a whole is on book production, print- ration for Morris' "superb but slightly the British Army until 1946. He lived in ing and book art and illustration, and the mannered style ... in the tradition of Adelaide from 1947 to 1962 where he Kelmscott Collection is therefore very Chaucer", and his firm belief that "a was Lecturer at the University Medical central to understanding it as a whole. revival [of Morris authorship] will come School and from 1950 to 1961, and his place in English Literature be Director of the Institute of firmly established". 8 Medical and Veterinary His preferred Morris stories Science. From 1962 to 1974 in 1960 were The Well at Dr. Poynton was Consulting the World's End and sec- Bibliographer at the University ondly The Roots of the of Melbourne from where he Mountains, 9 which was received an Honorary LL.D. in never published by the 1977. He is now living in Kelmscott Press but for retirement on the Mornington which Morris designed Peninsula. a superb chinz floral bind- ing. In a recent letter Dr. Poynton inherited from Dr. Poynton again states his his father a lifelong interest in admiration for The Roots of the study and collection of rare the Mountains as one of books and prints, but the aston- Morris's prime achieve- ishing book collection was ments. 10 largely built up by Dr. Poynton in Australia after the Second The first part of Dr. World War. An earlier large Poynton's prediction has Poynton collection of books come true, but whilst the which existed in London before 1996 birthday celebrations the war was largely destroyed and the Morris Home Page in the Blitz. on the World Wide Web tes- tifies to the revival of Apart from the Kelmscott Morris as an artist, his Press books, Dr. Poynton's Dr Orde Poynton, portrait by Ivor Hele, 1950 (oil on composition board) authorship is still waiting gifts have included a Second for a re-evaluation. Folio Shakespeare, 5 a "Nuremberg William Morris the artist and book The majority of the Kelmscott Press Chronicle" - one of the most lavishly designer was highly un-fashionable in books in the collection were given in the illustrated books of the 15th Century, 6 the decades after the Second World War. first donation in 1958-59. All are in the about 3,400 volumes of Greek and Latin Dr. Poynton strongly believed then that finest possible condition, as is character- Classics covering the history of printing Kelmscott Press Books were under- istic of the Poynton Collection as a from the 15th century to the 19th centu- priced and would appreciate in value. A whole - and as any book collector ry, several thousand first and early edi- year or so after Dr. Poynton's first dona- knows, for fine printing the condition is tions of major English authors of the tion had arrived in the Baillieu Library vital. A shabby copy of a "valuable" eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and (October 1960), he gave a talk about book may be worth next to nothing. a large collection of modern private William Morris and the Kelmscott Press press books and limited and first edi- to University staff which was published Amongst the books in the 1958/59 tions of 20th century writers. As well as in The Australian Library Journal, donation, packed with the utmost care the Kelmscott Press books the private October 1961. The talk reads as freshly by Dr. Poynton into transfusion bottle press collection includes substantial today as ever, and the key point which cartons and transported in University holdings of, for instance, Ashendene, Dr. Poynton makes is that, vehicles from Adelaide, were 29 Golden Cockerel, Vale and Essex House Kelmscott Press books and five pieces Press books. Morris books predating the "Whether [Morris] appeals to our of Kelmscott ephemera, but unfortunate- Kelmscott Press venture are also well taste today or not, [he] was a great ly the records do not allow us to estab- • lish the titles easily. However, KELMSCOTT PRESS, UPPER Kelmscott Press books have been MALL, HAMMERSMITH. included in almost all Poynton dona- June tst, 1896. tions since the first one, including the last major donation in 1993 of 100 Note. This is the Golden type. books which contained a unique copy of this is the troy type. William Morris' Poems by the Way this is the Chaucer type. (Kelmscott Press, 1891) bound in vel- Left: lum stained indigo. Advertisement sheet of the Whilst Dr. Poynton's generosity to Kelmscott Press, the University of Melbourne has been including exam- ples of the Press almost unbelievable, he has also donated typefaces Kelmscott Press books to both The National Gallery of Victoria (1980) and Below: The fron- tispiece of A more recently to the Australian National Dream of John Gallery in Canberra which now has an luil"nprolobaut..m o Ball by William outstanding Poynton Collection. Morris, the Secretary Kelmscott Press, The recent exhibition in the S. C. Cockerell, Kelmscott Press, Upper Mall, 1892. The illustra- University Gallery celebrated the cente- Hammersmith, London, W., to whom all tion is by Edward nary of the death of William Morris. It Burne-Jones. letters should be addressed. showed how intimately his book design was linked to the rest of his designs in wallpapers, textiles and other forms. Some very special books from the Poynton collection were exhibited, amongst them: • The first book off the press, William Morris's The Story of the Glittering Plain (Kelmscott Press, 1891), printed in black ink only.

• William Morris Poems by the Way, (Kelmscott Press, 1891), the first book printed in two colours, black and red ink.

• Laudes Beatae Mariae Virginis, (Kelmscott Press, 1896), the first book printed in three colours, black, red and blue ink.

• William Morris Poems by the Way (Kelmscott Press, 1891) this volume bound in vellum stained indigo. As an experiment, Morris stained the bindings of a few copies of Poems by the Way. They were not intended for sale but were for Morris and his friends.

• Coleridge's Poems (Kelmscott Press, 1896) with the original bill of sale from Kelmscott Press to Miss Florence L. C. Curtis (the book has her book plate). Signed by Sydney Cockerell, Secretary of the Press and dated 1st April 1896. • Morris's A Dream of John Ball (Kelmscott Press, 1892). The fron- tispiece is by Edward Burne-Jones. Notes and not least -

• Morris's 1 William Morris: Romantic to Peterson. The Kelmscott Press. Oxford: (Kelmscott Press, 1896), a presentation Revolutionary 1834-1896. University Clarendon Press, 1984). copy from William Morris to Georgiana Gallery, the University of Melbourne William Caxton. The History of Burne-Jones, "To Georgie from Will, Museum of Art, 2 September-11 Reynard the Foxe, 1892. (Peterson August 24th 1896". October 1996. This paper is an edited A10). The Kelmscott Press Collection is version of a talk given by Merete one of the key parts in the vast mesh of Smith at a Symposium on William William Morris. , interrelated collections donated by Morris at The University of Melbourne 1892 (Peterson Al2). on Saturday 14th September 1996. Dr. Poynton to the University of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Sonnets and Melbourne Library. As William Morris 2 Thanks is owing in particular to Lyrical Poems, 1894. (Peterson A20a). became fascinated by the process of Caroline Downer, a postgraduate stu- William Morris. The Tale of King book designing, so did Dr. Poynton. dent of Fine Arts, Museum Studies at Florus and the Fair Jehane, 1893. William Morris created the Kelmscott the University of Melbourne who spent (Peterson A21). Press, Dr. Poynton created a vast collec- part of her required practicum period tion celebrating the printed book, its pro- helping to prepare the book part of the William Morris. The Story of the duction and illustration, the development exhibition. Glittering Plain, 1894. (Peterson A22). of the book, particularly the illustrated book as "a harmonious work of art" as 3 William Morris. The Story of the Percy Bysshe Shelley. The Poetical Morris expressed it. Glittering Plain, 1891. Works, 3 vols., 1894-1895. (Peterson A29). The importance of the books to the 4 Orde Poynton. The Kelmscott Press of history of Morris's art is becoming William Morris (An informal address Girolamo Savonarola. Epistola de increasingly important. The centenary of given in the Baillieu Library, Contemptu Mundi, 1894. (Peterson his death has been marked widely by University of Melbourne, on 24 A31). October 1960.) The Australian Library exhibitions which have all placed the William Morris and A. J. Wyatt (trans.) Journal, October 1961 p. 175-181. books centrally. The Melbourne exhibi- The Tale of Beowulf, 1895. (Peterson tion clearly demonstrated the links in The Works of William Shakespeare. A32). design between the books and Morris's London : Tho. Cotes for Robert Allot, William Morris. Child Christopher and other work. 1632. Goldilind the Fair, 1895. (Peterson One of the 15 titles not held by the 6 Hartmann Schedel. Liber Chronicarum. A35). University of Melbourne Library is the Nuremberg : Anton Koberger, 1493. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Hand and Soul, Kelmscott Chaucer. This huge book is generally considered the crowning 7 The Australian Library Journal, 1895. (Peterson A36). October 1961, p. 176. achievement of the Press. 11 It would, of Robert Herrick. Poems chosen out of course, be extremely valuable for the 8 Ibid. p. 176. the Works of ..., 1896. (Peterson A37). University to have a complete collection Geoffrey Chaucer. The Works, 1896. of Kelmscott Press books. It may well 9 William Morris. The Roots of the (Peterson A49). be possible to achieve this over a num- Mountains. London : Reeves and Turner, 1890. One Poynton copy is an ber of years but it will only occur with "Two Trial Pages of the Projected inscribed presentation copy from help from the Friends of the Baillieu Edition" of Lord Berners' Translation William Morris to Belfort Box. The Library and other interested donors fol- of Froissartis Chronicles, 1897. inscription is dated Dec. 15th 1889, lowing in the footsteps of Dr. Poynton. ♦ (Peterson A46). that is, before the book was published. William Morris. The Story of Sigurd 10 Private communication, Dr. 0. Poynton the Volsung and the Fall of the (1996). Niblungs, 1898. (Peterson A50). 11 The Kelmscott Press titles which are not in the Library's collections are (Numbers in brackets refer to William

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