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Limited edition, number 135 of 485 copies on handmade paper; a further 15 copies were issued on vellum. The Canterbury Tales was one of the "most important Golden Cockerel editions for which Eric Gill provided the engravings" and showcases his "originality and verve" (ODNB). This work was seen as one of the finest books to be produced by the press, exhibiting the ideals of the private press movement as if the "author, artist and printer have shared one concept and expressed it" (Franklin). An announcement of the edition within The Times Literary Supplement on 2 February 1928 noted a publication price of 25 Guineas. It also stated that the vellum copies (at 120 Guineas) had already been fully subscribed. The publication of the work was a major literary event and was widely covered in the press throughout the four-year publication period. A review within The Times Literary Supplement described the set as "a fine one" and noted that "each page is ornamented at the side with a conventional tree, at the top or bottom of which there are usually figures. These figures seems alternately to express an almost frivolous gaiety and a harsh asceticism... Gill portrays these attributes and characteristics of the Middle Ages as if they came down to us from a great distance, as pale now romantic shadows of what was once violent and robust. With this mood is at times combined a strain of Post-Impressionism, a modern flavour". The review concluded comparing the Golden Cockerel edition to the Kelmscott Chaucer, noting that Pre-Raphaelitism was "adaptable to new circumstances". The partners of the Golden Cockerel Press, Christopher Sandford, Owen Rutter, and Anthony Sandford, described the set in their bibliography of the press as simply "beautiful books". READ MORE Four vols, tall octavo. Bound for the publishers by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in brown quarter niger morocco, spines lettered in gilt, patterned paper boards, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Initials printed in red, blue, and black. With full-page illustration, 29 half-page illustrations, decorated borders, tailpieces, and line fillers, all by Gill. Some wear to extremities, slight color variance to morocco, minor cracking to front joint of vol. 1, minor browning to endpapers (as usual): a very good set. Chanticleer 63; Franklin 307; Gill 281. The Times Literary Supplement, 2 Feb. 1928, p. 79 & 18 April 1929, p. 310.

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400.