1904 First Limited Edition - Sir Galahad, A Christmas Mystery by William Morris
Author: William Morris. Designed by Thomas Wood Stevens.
Title: Sir Galahad: A Christmas Mystery.
Publisher: Chicago: The Blue Sky Press, 1904. First limited edition of 500 copies on paper plus 25 on Japan vellum; this is copy No. 161, hand-numbered on the colophon page.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 8.5 x 5 inches.
Pages: Unpaginated (approximately 28 leaves printed on double handmade paper).
Binding: Attractive and near fine publisher’s original grey paper-covered boards with dark decorative border and title Sir Galahad gilt-stamped to upper cover. Cloth spine. The rear board plain (hinges fine, overall slightly scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean - as shown). A very fresh and clean numbered copy of this beautiful private press edition. The interior is pristine, printed on thick handmade paper with wide margins and crisp impressions of the decorative initials. Printed green decorated endpapers repeating the Morris-style vine and holly motif.
Illustrations: Includes one photogravure frontispiece after a painting by Walter H. Hinton, printed on Japan-style plate paper with decorative border. Additional ornamental designs throughout, created under the direction of Thomas Wood Stevens, who designed and supervised the lettering and page composition.
Estimate: (USD 300–350).
The book: This finely printed Sir Galahad: A Christmas Mystery represents one of the most elegant American tributes to William Morris produced in the early 20th century. Issued by The Blue Sky Press of Chicago—a small private press active in the Arts & Crafts movement—this edition captures the visual language pioneered by Morris’s Kelmscott Press: decorative vine borders, hand-crafted initials in red and black, and a strong medievalist aesthetic.
The poem itself is Morris’s powerful retelling of the spiritual quest of Sir Galahad, suffused with imagery of purity, divine trials, and the knight’s visionary encounters. The printing is deliberately restrained yet sumptuous, allowing the lyricism of Morris’s verse to stand in perfect balance with the press’s ornamental design.
Beautifully preserved, with its deckle-edged leaves and luminous frontispiece, this copy exemplifies the transitional moment when American private presses sought to reinterpret Morris’s ideals for a new century.
The author: William Morris (1834–1896) was a poet, designer, and craftsman whose influence shaped both the Arts and Crafts Movement and the revival of fine printing. A founder of the Kelmscott Press (1891), Morris combined medieval romanticism with socialist ideals, seeking to restore beauty and integrity to everyday objects. Sir Galahad: A Christmas Mystery—originally written in 1858—is a lyrical meditation on purity, faith, and the moral quest embodied by the Arthurian knight.
The designer and press: Thomas Wood Stevens (1880–1942) was an American artist, educator, and designer who brought the Morrisian ideal of unity between art and craft to the United States. His work at The Blue Sky Press and later teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago contributed to the spread of fine press aesthetics in North America.
The Blue Sky Press, active between 1899 and 1907, published limited editions of poetry and literary works distinguished by handcrafted type and ornament, marking an important bridge between English and American private presses.