Sidonia the Sorceress.

1893. Hammersmith: The Kelmscott Press, 1893. Folio, bound in original quarter buckram over blue paste-paper boards, spine with paper label and two library accession numbers written in manuscript hand; uncut edges; printed throughout in Golden type in black and red; two other pages with partial borders, numerous uncials and decorative wood-engraved borders designed by William Morris; printer's device; pp. [vi], iii-xiv, [1], 2-455, [i, printer's device], [ii]; binding lightly soiled, and extremities scuffed with some denting, showing through to boards, paper label split with some loss to edges; internally a remarkably clean and fresh example, housed in a custom-made cloth clamshell case. Provenance: formerly in the possession of the Wolverhampton Free Library, with sticker to front paste down and their accession numbers written in ink to spine and in neat pencil to ffep and p. [vi]. Gifted by Mrs William Morris in memory of her husband in 1897, with printed presentation label asserting this fact, present on the front paste-down. First edition from the Kelmscott press of "An Historical romance, based more or less on fact, concerning the Witch Fever" (Morris). One of 300 copies, out of a total edition of 310 copies. This the much rarer variant binding intended for presentation. Most copies were bound in original limp vellum with silk ties but Peterson notes that "Cockerell instructed Leighton to bind thirty copies in 'half holland uniform with the Golden Legend' and these were later donated to British and American libraries". Translated by Oscar Wilde's mother. The story of Sidonia von Borcke the Pomeranian noblewoman who was tried and executed for witchcraft in 1620 gained cult status in Victorian England, particularly among the writers and painters of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Written by the Pomeranian priest William Meinhold, this immersive historical novel had been previously printed in 1849 and was already well known to Morris's artistic milieu.