Original leaf from the first great literary masterwork printed in English, being the first work of any substance printed in England, by England's premier printer. Caxton's Chaucer is the most expensive English book ever sold at auction. William Caxton, born in Kent in the early 1420's, was a successful merchant based for much of his life in Bruges, Flanders, and in the early 1470's spent some time in Cologne, where he first engaged in the newly invented process of printing books. In 1473, while still based in Bruges, he produced The Recuyell of the Histories of Troy, the first book to be printed in English, and in 1474 printed The Play of Chess. Following this success, Caxton transferred to England, and created for himself the niche market of works printed in English, realizing he could not go head to head with more substantial Continental printers on the great works in Latin and Greek. The Canterbury Tales by the English poet Chaucer, written in the 14th century, were already established as a well-loved classic, and Caxton shrewdly made this work the first big project for his English book-production. He could expect it to sell well, as it did, and today is renowned as the most sought-after and cherished of all English incunabula. The present fragment is folio 198, from Franklin's Tale, the recto beginning "Comfort in this tyme hadde he noon...", the verso starting "For holy chirche faith in our beleue..."