16 woodcuts

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early inked ownership inscription, Nancy Stone[r] or Stone[ 's].

•  Adomeit, Three Centuries of Thumb Bibles, A45; Shoemaker 1613; Welch, American Children’s Books, 860.5.   Contemporary sheep, spine with gilt-stamped title and foliate decorations; moderately rubbed overall. Front free endpaper with inscription as above. Front fly-leaves torn and creased, first few leaves each with small hole (touching frontispiece image and a few letters, not obscuring sense). One leaf with outer edge chipped, touching several letters. Foxing and spots of staining; some corners bumped. A sound little volume of the type.  (29324)

The family record leaves here were partially filled in with occasions in the lives of James M. Welling (b. 1807, d. 1882), his wife Susan Vail Welling (b. 1805, d. 1886), and their children; the final entry notes the death of Mark Hermon [sic] Wheeler in 1908.

Provenance: Front pastedown with small bookplate of prominent collector Michael Zinman.

•  Hills 465 (describing 684 pp. andonly three plates); Shoemaker 11809 (for an edition of this year, but with only 684 pp.); O’Callaghan gives 1818 Holbrook stereotype edition only. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped title-label; binding rubbed and abraded, with leather cracking over spine and cracked over joints. Pages browned, with waterstaining to inner margins. One plate with hole to corner of image; oversized, folding map with small hole near edge.

•  Shoemaker 15382. Contemporary speckled sheep, worn and abraded, spine with gilt-stamped leather title label. Front pastedown with early numerical inscription. Outer margins of last few leaves waterstained; some pages with mild cockling or light spotting, others with varying degrees of age-toning. (6030)

Binding: Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, covers framed in gilt rolls, spine gilt extra, front cover gilt-stamped “John Bradley.” All edges marbled.

•  Shoemaker 31685. Binding as above, sides darkened, corners and spine rubbed, joints cracked with sewing holding but quite fragile. Fly-leaves with early pencilled ownership inscriptions and annotations. Light to moderate foxing. Separate title-page for second section (only) lacking.

A major element in any Mormon collection and a requisite for any major collection of American Bibles.

•  Hills 618; O’Callaghan 189. Contemporary plain calf, spine with raised bands, gilt-ruled above and below and with gilt-lettered title in second compartment; gilt a little rubbed. Hinges (inside) repaired with paper. Shallow chipping and tattering, and many dog ears; tears mostly in the margins of pages and plates, but a few closed tears into text, on pp. 283–84 with loss of individual letters but not of sense; tattering on last leaf just touching text, leaf repaired with cellophane on verso; tissue repairs on pp. 273–74 and on the reverse of the frontispiece. Moderately foxed throughout; lacking pp. 765–68 of supplementary material (only). Pp. 618–19 are here misprinted in place of pp. 622–23—all text being present, if out of order! This significant Bible is here in a trim, neat contemporary binding. (10785)

•  O’Callaghan 213; Hills 765; not in Herbert. Straight-grained roan, covers gilt-ruled and spine gilt extra; rubbed, especially on spine, and corners bumped. Pp. 5–6 and 229–30 chipped on lower outer corner, with loss of part of page number from the former. Free endpapers chipped with loss; title-page partially detached in the gutter. Some old dog-ears, light foxing and occasional brown spots, and occasional light waterstaining. An attractive, solid little American Testament.

•  Not in Herbert, Hills, or O’Callaghan, but see Herbert 1802, Hills 818, and O’Callaghan 221–22. Contemporary sheep, spines with black and tan labels, all edges marbled green; leather scratched and abraded but volumes sound and attractive. Pp. 1049–56 lacking and pp. 1057–64 repeated. Pages generally clean and even bright; endpapers and many plate leaves however with foxing and age-toning, mostly light but sometimes darker (and off-setting from the plate leaves to adjoining pages). Overall sound and serviceable and nice. (5476)

Binding: Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, covers framed in gilt roll, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations.

Provenance: Ownership initials of William R. Whittingham (G.R.W., the "William" being rendered as "Guillelmus" for his love of Latin), fourth Episcopal Bishop of Baltimore; stamp of an Episcopal Diocesan lending library.

•  Front joint almost entirely broken, back joint starting from top, head of spine chipped, with binding showing minor darkening and scuffing overall. Free endpapers excised. Front pastedown with rubber-stamp as above (no other institutional markings); first text page with inked ownership inscription as above dated [18]64. Title-page of first work lacking. Pages slightly age-toned, some creased; one leaf with lower outer corner torn away. Small emphasis marks to index of Hymns, with an additional manuscript entry in the table of first lines.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with small label of prominent collector Michael Zinman. The family record leaves have been used for Willard family weddings, births, and deaths from 1809 through 1861.

Binding:  Contemporary sheep embossed with geometric and stylized foliate designs in typical Phinney style, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label and gilt-decorated compartments. All edges rather subtly marbled.

•  Hills, English Bible in America, 972; O'Callaghan 250.   Binding as above, front cover and spine almost entirely sueded and/or sunned to a golden color (and back one showing original state); extremities rubbed. Free endpapers lacking; frontispiece crumpled (but present), with margins (only) chipped; one plate with tear from upper margin, extending into image, neatly repaired from the rear; mild to moderate foxing only. Front pastedown with collector's label as above; family record leaves inscribed as above; small, tied lock of hair laid in. A solid, interesting example of a very popular American Bible.  (27214)

Click the images for enlargements.

OCLC and American Imprints locate only five U.S. institutional holdings of this edition, one of which has since been deaccessioned.

•  American Imprints 40-701. This ed. not in O'Callaghan or Hills.   Contemporary treed calf, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label; board edges darkened, corners and joints lightly rubbed. Title-page and first text page institutionally pressure-stamped and front pastedown with bookplates; first text page with numerals in lower margin. Front free endpaper with early inked annotation (apparently incorrect, unfortunately) regarding edition, signed by H. Cone. Fly-leaves foxed, some pages with scattered lighter spotting, most clean.  (25941)

The title's use of the word “illuminated” refers not (as usual) to decoration in gold, but both to the huge number of illustrations and to the fact that the half-titles, the title-leaves, and the presentation and birth, death, and marriage leaves are printed using colored inks. Concerning the illustrations, Frank Weitenkampf wrote in The Boston Public Library Quarterly (July, 1958, pp. 154–57): “The engravings after Chapman carefully reproduced the prim line-work method of the Englishman Bewick, introduced here by Alexander Anderson. . . . [T]his Harper publication was a remarkable production for its time and place, and retains its importance in the annals of American book-making. W.J. Linton, noted wood-engraver and author, knew ‘no other book like this, so good, so perfect in all it undertakes.'”

•  O'Callaghan 288–89; Hills 1161.   Binding as above, joints and extremities rubbed, covers with scrapes and discolorations but gilt still bright; repair to foot of front cover joint (hinged in place with appropriate papers; exterior secured with toned tissue), abraded leather consolidated. As might well be expected of such a massive volume, hinges and joints are tender. Occasional very faint spotting, pages generally clean, with family register leaves unused. Last (index) leaf with tear from inner margin extending into text, repaired with long-fiber tissue and wheat starch paste. In its signed binding, this is an interesting example of a very impressive production.  (28808)

The Rev. Wright (1788–1853) spent over 30 years among the Choctaw people in Mississippi and Oklahoma. He founded the Wheelock Mission (named for his friend Eleazer Wheelock, Dartmouth College's first president) in 1832, where he was directly involved in developing the Choctaw written language, along with Byington and Dukes.

•  Darlow & Moule 3051; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Choctaw-9; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 265; Pilling, Muskhogean, 101; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2744. Not in Field; not in Sabin.   Period-style half morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and date. First and last pages slightly smudged, text otherwise clean; a few scattered signatures unopened. A handsome copy of an uncommon and significant New Testament.  (29504)