This is a collection of five Scots ballads printed from a manuscript with illustrations and illumination by the Scottish artist Robert Burns (1869-1941). The beautifully reproduced illustrations and text combine aspects of the arts and crafts, art nouveau and art deco movements.
In the preface to the volume, Burns states that the three copies of the manuscript were presented to the architect Alexander Hunter Crawford, while he intended to produce a facsimile to be sold to the public. Unfortunately, the cost of this project would have rendered the work unaffordable so Burns spent three years redoing it in black and white to reduce costs. In all, there were sixty copies produced, of which fifty were sold to the public.