Provenance: Fore-edge painted with “Elizabeth Smith, 1680"; front fly-leaf with inscription recording the birth of William Rice in 1681 and with inscription of Charles Knowlton, dated 1738; fly-leaf verso with early inked genealogy describing the Smith-Rice-Knowlton descent.

Binding: Elaborate Restoration binding: black morocco framed in gilt semi-circle and strawberry rolls surrounding a broken panel design of red-inlaid scalloped corners decorated with floral-dotted volutes, containing a bouquet of tulips and other flowers with red and citron morocco inlays; the upper- and lowermost tulips each with a smaller gilt-stamped flower and leaf tool inside, spaces filled with small flowers and dots. Spine gilt extra using cover rolls and additional floral decorations, with two decorated compartments of red morocco; board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls. The tools used do not appear to be an exact match to any binder represented in Bennett, Nixon, or Maggs: Bookbinding in the British Isles, although the tulip with superimposed small flower is reminiscent of the binder Nixon identifies as the Small Carnation Binder. All edges gilt. Fore-edge painted with name as above, surrounded by hand-painted floral decorations.

•  BCP: Wing (rev. ed.) B3659B. Not in ESTC; not in Griffiths (see 1680/5 for a very close example). Bible: ESTC R215858; Wing (rev. ed.) B2308A; Herbert 758. Psalms: Not in ESTC, not in Wing.   Binding as above, front joint cracked (sewing holding) with corners/edges rubbed; spine leather with small cracks and head chipped, small area darkened. BCP lacking A1, either a blank or a licence and much more likely an initial blank; title-page repaired at one corner. Elsewhere, one leaf with tear from outer margin, extending across one column without loss; page edges with occasional small smudges from fore-edge decorations; some faint spotting and foxing. Now housed in a café au lait morocco slipcase mistakenly giving 1630 as year of publication, based on misleading print impression on title-page. A good and interesting book apart from its extraordinary binding, charming fore-edge treatment, and multi-generational provenance.  (25925)

Provenance:  George Richard Mackarness M.A. (bookplate); Wallace Parham (bookplateand sticker).

•  Gewirtz, But One Use, 55; ESTC T141242; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1717/2.   Binding as above; leather cracking slightly along joints and scuffed in a few places, chips at top of spine. Lacking volvelle, as is almost always the case; later manuscript note citing Walpole's “Anecdotes of Painting” laid in. Age-toning/soiling across page-bottoms and lower outer corners, with only a bit of soiling/spotting otherwise; reds remain very bright and impressions dark and crisp. Ink inscription “From my mother Jan. 1855" on front fly-leaf verso. A wondrously beautiful piece of devotional art in very nice condition.  (30126)

Provenance: Elegant old lozenge-shaped ink-stamp on title-pages: “John Brymer Heir-Loom.”

The main title-page is printed in red and black; the separate title-page for the Psalter has a neat woodcut printer's vignette and blazons (in Greek type) Psalterion prophetou kai basileos tou Dabid. The elegant Greek type is set in double columns, with some nicely laid in typographic ornaments and decorated capitals. The signing is erratic, but the collation of this example matches most recorded descriptions: Leaf α1, apparently a cancel in a few copies but lacking in most reported examples and not present here, was a supplemental title-page giving Biblos dēmosiōn euchōn, kai leitourgēseōs mystēriōn; Griffiths calls for only one preliminary leaf, as is found here, with the other leaf in the gathering being a blank. Leaf 1C2 is a cancel.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Twistleton Fiennes, with that family's motto: “Fortem posce animum”; front free endpaper rubber-stamped “Birch” and front fly-leaf inked “Tho.s Birch e Coll. Herts. Oxon.” (apparently neither the historian nor the marine painter); title-page with inked monogram (obscure).

•  ESTC S108726; STC (rev. ed.) 16432 & 2353; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, (Other Languages) 45/2. Psalter: Darlow & Moule 4683. See: Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer 57.   Contemporary speckled calf, covers framed in gilt double fillets, rebacked with speckled calf quite plainly (without labels but with gilt-dotted raised bands); corners rubbed, original leather showing expectable acid-pitting. One preliminary blank (only) lacking; title-pages trimmed closely at outer edge, affecting typographical border and (on main page) one letter of publication information. Ownership marks as above. Pages lightly age-toned, otherwise clean; tiny spot of worming in lower inner margin, not affecting text. A handsome and evocative little book.  (26373)

•  Prayer Book, Psalter: not in ESTC. Bible: not in Darlow & Moule or ESTC; Herbert 1286. Contemporary calf, covers panelled in blind with remnants of clasps. Front joint open with cords strongly holding; covers abraded with incisions and leather loss to edges; spine leather dry and cracking; front fly-leaf detached. Lacking title-page and two preliminary leaves of Prayer Book; another early leaf detached with a closed tear across, no loss of text; four or half a dozen leaves with a crescent of waterstaining along upper margin and some lines into text. Bible: scattered foxing and brown spotting, with a few closed tears and occasional chipping in the margins, resulting in loss of words from a few shouldernotes. The copy described by Herbert had engravings and maps not present here; this copy is complete textually.

Binding: Contemporary straight-grain dark blue morocco now tending to olive, covers framed with a gilt single fillet; round spine with raised bands, blind roll on each band, and each band defined by gilt rules above and below it. Spine with compartments stamped in blind, gilt-stamped title, and gilt-stamped decorations at head and foot; place and date of publication in gilt at base of spine. All edges gilt; fore-edge painting as above.

•  ESTC T081415; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1758/1. Binding as above, corners a bit rubbed and joints somewhat more so, with upper and outer cover edges showing some fading. Front pastedown with small shelving number slip and small bookplate of a private collector. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise clean save for minor bleed to some outer margins from the fore-edge painting. Beautiful.

Fore-edge: This beautiful example bears a subtly shaded (and therefore hard to photograph)fore-edge painting showing Westminster Abbey in the background behind a waterfront view with sailboats.

Binding:  Full straight-grain dark olive green morocco, covers framed in elegant feather and pearl twist gilt roll, turn-ins with floral gilt roll. Stone-pattern marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

•  Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1802/1.   Binding as above, mild rubbing overall with some abraded areas consolidated, joints and extremities subtly repaired, aesthetically appropriate endbands supplied. Title-page with inked ownership inscription dated 1803, “The gift of my beloved husband.” Intermittent faint spots of foxing, mostly confined to early leaves. One inked marginal annotation in an early hand, three psalms (145–47) with small inked emphasis marks, pages otherwise clean.  (28715)

The two volumes are illustrated with six steel-engraved portraits, an oversized representation of the “Talk with the Indians at Buffalo Creek in 1793,” and an oversized, folding map.

Brant had famously translated the Book of Common Prayer into Mohawk; in 1784, he led his tribe into Canada to live by the Grand River north of Lake Erie.

•  American Imprints 53125; Howes S1040; Sabin 92139.   Olive-brown cloth, covers framed in blind, spines with gilt-stamped title; vol. II in publisher's original binding and vol. I in recent reproduction of same (vol. I shorter than vol. II; vol. II with extremities rubbed, back cover discolored, back joint repaired and front joint starting). Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, rubber-stamp on each engraved title-page, pressure-stamp on each printed title-page, no other markings. Vol. I: Several early and a few subsequent pages with faint spotting; ten leaves with inner margins waterstained and subsequently slightly fragile, one with resulting tear extending into text without loss. Vol. II: some early outer margins waterstained. Folding plate with short tear from inner margin, touching image without loss. A more than serviceable copy of an essential work of American history, priced to reflect its previous service.  (29415)