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)

As Darlow and Moule comment, “by printing the Rheims Testament in full, side by side with the Bishops' version, [Fulke] secured for the former a publicity which it would not otherwise have obtained, and was indirectly responsible for the marked influence which Rheims exerted on the Bible of 1611.” Alan Thomas elaborates by observing that “many a dignified or felicitous phrase was silently lifted by the editors of King James's Version, and thus passed into the language” (Great Books and Book Collectors, p. 108).

Provenance:  Signature of a contemporary owner “A. Thorpe, York,” undated, on A2.

•  STC 2900; Darlow & Moule 265; Herbert 265; ESTC S115769.   Modern black calf, covers framed with single gilt rule and paneled in gilt rolls with corner fleurons. Title-page mounted, with outer edge and small hole in lower margin reinforced; dust-soiled. A2 with early inked ownership signature (see above) and notation; reinforced at hinge (inside). Other markings: two pages with marginal notations and four pages with corrections, both inked by an early hand. Bug-spotting on several preliminary leaves. Light waterstaining on some early and later leaves, with occasional odd stains and spots elsewhere, not impairing sense of text. Dust-soiling on index pages. Two preliminary leaves missing small pieces of paper in blank margins; small hole at top outer corner of Kkkk4; and small chip at top edge of Hhhh2. Fold-mark at top outer corner of Vvv2. In fact, a very nice copy of an important book.  (24477)

The volume opens with two fly-leaves bearing genealogical records in several different early inked hands, with dates ranging from 1743 through 1847. A copy of Speed's Genealogies precedes the Old Testament, while the “Description of Canaan” with map that should close the Genealogies has been bound in after the O.T. title-page.

•  ESTC S122379; Darlow & Moule 359; STC (2nd ed.) 2298.5. Speed: ESTC S126191; STC (2nd ed.) 23039a.4. Psalms: ESTC S122383; STC (2nd ed.) 2633.   Recent mottled calf, covers fillet-framed and panelled in blind with decorative inner blind roll and blind-tooled corner fleurons; spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-ruled raised bands. Front cover with two slender scrapes; title-page with date altered in ink to 1633, as above. Front fly-leaves with margins repaired; “Description of Canaan” with inner margin reinforced. Bible, seven preliminary leaves lacking (calendar, dedication, preface, and list of books all present); Psalms, four final index leaves (only) lacking; foliation slightly erratic. Varying degrees of age-toning, occasional light waterstaining, some margins with faint smudging; in fact and in suma nice volume to hold and work with.  (26102)

Provenance:  Ownership signature of Albemarle Bertie, 9th Earl of Lindsey, the British general and member, briefly, of Parliament for Stamford, 1744–1818 (front fly-leaf verso); and his armorial bookplate (front pastedown). Another bookplate, small and circular (front pastedown, top), has the initials “M.A.H.” beneath a crown, likely for the M.A. Huntley who signed the front fly-leaf in ink. Presentation inscription signed Rev. [???] Edmunds “to his much valued & esteemed friend M.A. Pegus,” March 14, 1840.

The coat of arms forBertie County, North Carolina, incorporates the same shield, helm, and crest, as the arms of our Albemarle Bertie, whose relatives James and Henry Bertie acquired that land from the original Lord Proprietors before 1729.

This Bible isscarce: Just two copies were found in U.S. libraries via WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956.

•  Wing B2237; Herbert 631; ESTC R229989 (bound with Sternhold & Hopkins' Book of Psalms); L. Wilson, Bibles . . . in English, I, 183. Not in Darlow & Moule. On Bertie County, see: “James & Henry Bertie, Namesakes of the County,” in The Bertie Historical Association, vol. II, no. 2 (Oct. 1954).   Binding as above; leather darkened more or less evenly all over to a rich russet, lightly worn along the front joint with an old inch-long repair at the top, board corners lightly bumped, front supra-libros rubbed from use, at the spot, imaginably, where Bertie put his thumb. One small tear to a later leaf, the very lower outer corners of a few leaves torn away to no adverse effect, and a minute chip to the edge of the title-page; text remarkably clean with instances of off-setting from the hand-coloring the only “stains.”  (30139)

The poetic Song of Solomon is here interpreted and typeset as a drama, with, as full-fledged characters, the Bridegroom, the Spouse, and choruses of Virgins and Companions; Percy's introduction and notes explain that choice and, otherwise, deal largely with the background of Jewish marriage ceremonies.

The title-page is printed in red and black, with the author supplied in old ink. Dodsley has supplied a light scattering of ornaments, including a rather charming mini-manicule that introduces the most significant notes.

•  See: Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, II, 242; not in: Darlow & Moule. On Percy, who later became one of the king's chaplains-in-ordinary, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   19th-century half calf over gray marbled boards, spine gilt-ruled with red label, speckled edges; joints and board edges rubbed and faded, leather cracking along spine. Lacking the first leaf (half-title?). Offsetting from binding to endpapers, mild foxing throughout, a copy sound and pleasant.  (30122)

Provenance: Front pastedown with red leather bookplate gilt-stamped “Sarah Jeaffreson.” Also with tipped-in bookplate of the Zion Research Library’s A. Marguerite Smith Collection and with laid-in bookplate of the Endowment for Biblical Research, Boston.

Binding: Red goat, covers framed in floral gilt rolls and spine compartments with gilt-stamped geometric and floral decorations; very delicate and pretty. Board edges gilt, gilt inner dentelles, all edges gilt.

•  ESTC T91635; Darlow & Moule 1238. Binding moderately rubbed and abraded with spine slightly darkened; corners bumped and lower one of front cover discolored at leather-edge; gilt on edges faded almost away. Inside some age-toning, with a handful of small, light spots; one leaf torn along inner margin. Back fly-leaf with pencilled notation; scattered stray pencil marks to other leaves. A pleasing little Oxford Bible. (7794)

•  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.

This edition ends with leaf 6M4 and does not match Darlow and Moule 957 (Edinburgh: M. & C. Kerr, 1793), described as a folio with text ending on 9R2, although that entry's statement that “The insertion of the Apocrypha interrupts the signatures” would seem to explain the absence of the non-integral Apocrypha; the accompanying Scotch Metrical Psalms of 1795 are also present in Darlow and Moule's listing. Herbert finds additional Kerr printings of 1793, but none that match the format and collation of this copy.

Scarce: ESTC, OCLC, and NUC Pre-1956 find only two U.S. holdings.

Provenance: The beautifully written ownership note, “Rebecca Jane Emack,” at top of first text leaf.

•  ESTC T91818; this ed. not in Darlow & Moule or Herbert.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped thistle decorations, leather edges tooled in blind. Upper portion of title-page neatly excised and probably something off the bottom also; early inked ownership inscription as above. Light staining and foxing; several instances of laid-in dried plant matter.  (25336)

Each volume closes with extensive Notes; the last leaf of vol. I offers a list of other works by this author for sale from the same publisher; and the last page of the second volume has an affixed errata slip. The notes are quite direct and personal, with Wakefield remarking, e.g., on what effect or variety of accuracy he is trying to achieve; what the knot of difficulty at a particular point actually is, for the translator; and whose “excellent” reading he is following (and how the chosen version from the Coptic differs from the Syriac or AEthiopic). He expresses surprise that an “obvious construction” has “escaped the critics” so “remarkabl[y]” long as it has, and in another case confesses that he is “quite at a loss” as to how one clause is supposed to connect with another — definitely, he's a scholar who yetlives in his pages.

Provenance:  Armorial bookplates of Justinian Minoch laid in.

•  ESTC T93093; Darlow & Moule 933 (see note); Herbert 1362. On Wakefield, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent quarter black morocco and stone pattern marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind; spines with gilt-stamped title, volume number, place/date, and compartment decorations. Bookplates laid in as above. Half-titles and title-pages with handsome old institutional pressure-stamp; each first text page with inked numeral. Intermittent light foxing, pages otherwise clean. An engaging pair of books in all respects.  (25784)

George Campbell (1719–96) was a minister of the Church of Scotland, theologian, and principal of Marischal College. He wrote a number of theological works, including a defense of miracles in response to David Hume, and was noted for originality of argument as well as charity towards his opponents. This translation of the Gospels was first published in England in 1789; the work consists of a preface and preliminary dissertations, the actual translation, and the notes, with the whole being very scholarly, resorting frequently to the Greek in the dissertations and notes.

Provenance: Title-page and contents leaf with early inked inscriptions reading “Jas. Booth.”

•  ESTC W4383; Evans 30086; Hills, English Bible in America, 56. On Campbell, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary treed sheep, rubbed and abraded with leather lost at corners/spine and cracking over joints and spine. Title-page and contents inscribed as described above; endpapers waterstained, and pages with light spots of foxing. Paper in many sections faintly blue.

•  ESTC W4382; Evans 35200; Hills, English Bible in America, 71. On Campbell, see: The Dictionary of National Biography.   Publisher's brown leather, rebacked, board edges refurbished, original spine-label reused. Old library pressure-stamps and a bit of pencilling, stamped numberwith a (properly deaccessioned). Occasional light foxing and with some marginal waterstains. Overall, a rather nice copy.  (23757)

Provenance: Late 20th-century bookplate of Michael Zinman on rear pastedown. Booklabel affixed to front free endpaper reads, “Wm. Henry Scott[o?]s. Property left to him by his mother who departed this life April the third 1817"; this over a handwritten inscription that can be read with a mirror from the verso, “William Henry Scott's / [word not deciphered] Biblia.”

•  Hills 144; not in O'Callaghan; not in Shaw & Shoemaker.   Contemporary full sheep, spine with four raised bands forming compartments; perfectly plain with no labels. Occasional spots of foxing only; a good copy.  (4762)

The text generally follows the Challoner–Rheims revision, although the notes are collected from various sources. The volume isillustrated with two frontispieces and17 plates engraved by J. Bottomley, Symns and Mitchell, and others after paintings by Westall, Raphael, Reynolds, et al. Issued in parts in a small print run, this Bible is now uncommon.

•  Darlow & Moule 1034. Contemporary acid-stained calf rebacked with mottled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and blind-tooled compartment decorations; sides rubbed/scraped with leather worn over corners/edges, this not disfiguring. Hinges (inside) reinforced with cloth tape, and this large volume now strong. Lacking title-page. Plate from Genesis I:4 removed, and laid back in with margins cut away. First few leaves with edges ragged. Pages with offsetting around plates; occasional light spots of staining, mostly confined to outer margins. (11727)

•  Hills 259; Shaw & Shoemaker 30867. Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding rubbed, front joint cracked, back joint starting from top, spine extremities chipped. Front pastedown with private collector’s small bookplate, title-page with early inked ownership inscription in upper margin. Pages age-toned.

Provenance

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 47213; Hills 375. Contemporary sheep double-panelled in blind, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title label; binding rubbed and unevenly faded, leather cracking over spine. Foxing ranging from mild to severe; last few leaves waterstained; some dog-earing. One worm track to upper outer margin of a few leaves. New Testament lacking title. Well used but not abused; an evocative copy.

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.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Vol. I opens with a copper-engraved dedication to the king; vol. III closes with a list of subscribers.

Complete sets in good condition are not commonly found on the market.

•  Herbert 369; NSTC 2B26321.   Original boards (signed binding: each front pastedown with small ticket of G. Peck, bookbinder), newly rebacked in the style of the era with tan paper spines in mottled tones bearing new printed paper labels; corners and edges rubbed, sides showing moderate wear. Each front pastedown with early inked numeral. Page edges untrimmed; pages lightly age-toned, with intermittent spotting. A very good set.  (25087)

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.