Binding:  Publisher's boards of papier maché and plaster, formed using a metal mold and colored black, creating a gothic “carved wood binding.” Title blind-embossed on black roan spine. All edges gilt.

McLean states of the English edition of this work that “It was . . . the first of the so-called 'papier maché' bindings, contrived to look like carved ebony.” This first American edition bears the first “papier maché” binding accomplished in the U.S.

•  Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England, 231; McLean, Victorian Book Design (second edition), pp. 99, 210; Maggs Bros., Bookbinding in the British Isles, part 2, 245; Abbey, Life, 222.   Very nicely preserved copy with just a few small cracks in the binding, leaves expertly reattached/recased; spine intact with surface of front cover a little rubbed in one small portion. Unlike the broken, chipped, and damaged copies we have seen, this is a treasurable exemplar. Housed in a quarter red cloth clamshell case with tan cloth sides and black leather gilt spine label.  (30100)

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)

Click the image for an enlargement.

We trace no other copy of this edition.

•  Not in Darlow & Moule.   Publisher's quarter cloth with plain blue paper board sides. Title-label on front cover; area of discoloration on front cover. Institutional bookplate on front pastedown. Institutional perforation-stamp on first leaf; one rubber-stamped number and two inked ones; charge pocket residue on rear pastedown.  (20094)

Binding: Pebbled black leather sumptuously gilt: The covers tooled with a design composed of a base and pavilion formed of foliated C and S curve volutes enclosing fine foliated strapwork. Ornate columns support the pavilion, which encloses a shell. From the base hang a pair of acroteria, and the base supports a vase of flowers on a rocaille. Board edges gilt-rolled; gilt inner dentelles. Spine divided into compartments by narrow raised bands: Each compartment with a frame of treble fillets, within the second compartment the title gilt-lettered, the remaining compartments ornamented within by fine foliated filigree. All edges gilt.

Provenance: Presentation copy to Harriet E. Henderson with her name in gilt centered on the front cover.

•  Not in Hills; not in Herbert; not in O'Callaghan. Binding as above with a few barely noticeable small abrasions. A few spots of light staining on some pages. As nice an example of this kind of Bible "production" as you are ever going to find.

Click the image for an enlargement.

First text leaf with old note, “This reads from left to right.”

•  Not in Darlow & Moule.   Publisher's quarter cloth with plain tan paper board sides. Title-label on front cover; area of discoloration on front cover. Institutional bookplate on front pastedown; two rubber-stamped numbers and an inked one, and occasional pencilling; charge pocket residue on rear pastedown. Annotations as above.  (20093)

•  Darlow & Moule 9129.   Publisher's limp textured cloth, front cover with printed paper label; corners and spine extremities very very slightly rubbed. Outer edge of front free endpaper a bit chewed; pages clean. A lovely copy.  (29276)

Prior to this, various books of the New Testament had been printed at the Park Hill Mission Press but a complete Testament was never attempted there

Provenance:  Bookplate of Dr. Andrew Pickens, late a professor of theology at Furman University.

Evidence of readership: Occasional marginalia and interlinear notes in the neat small hand of Dr. Pickens, mostly suggestions for translations or meanings of words; a leaf of notes and a syllabic “key” are laid in.

•  Darlow & Moule 2448; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 215; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 3743.   Publisher's black pebble-textured cloth. Very good condition.  (27811)

WorldCat locates only one U.S. institutional holding

•  Not in Darlow & Moule.   Publisher's limp textured cloth, front cover with printed paper label; minimal wear to spine. Pages clean.  (29294)

Binding: Signed reddish-brown morocco binding by Root & Son, with covers and spine gilt extra; extremely wide and handsome turn-ins elaborately gilt tooled — these last are illustrated in our last image here.

•  Not in Darlow & Moule. Leather showing small rubbed spots over edges and extremities, with faint leather discoloration to part of front cover; front pastedown with traces of a now-absent bookplate. The weight of this substantial volume has partially cracked the front joint; however, with careful use (and storage on the volume’s back, not its lower edge), this damage should not quickly progress. A lavishly produced Victorian New Testament, in a still-impressive binding.

•  Front wrapper present, lacking rear one; removed from a bound volume. (15152)

For more BIBLES & TESTAMENTS,  click here.
For the INDIA gathering, including
MORE TAMIL,  click here.
For DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS, ETC.,  click here.
For more “GIFTABLES”— mostly $150
      & UNDER,  click here.

Provenance:  Front covers each with gilt-stamped leather label reading “Henry G. Weston.”

•  NSTC 2B26290.   Contemporary half brown morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, front covers with leather labels as above; somewhat rubbed/scuffed with joints and hinges reinforced, back joint of vol. I just starting, spine leather with small cracks and chips. Front pastedowns with traces of now-absent bookplates; first pages each with rubber-stamped numeral, inked notation along inner margin, and institutional pressure-stamp; back pastedowns with pockets. Text annotated as above, marginalia in different colors of ink depending on category (vol. II and latter portion of vol. I not interleaved, with fewer marginalia). Paper slightly embrittled, with occasional short edge tears; one leaf with short slice from outer margin, extending into text without loss. A few instances of staining; scattered faint foxing. Sound, attractive, and interesting in a variety of ways.  (26038)

Provenance:  The family register leaves record that one Peter Paul Shank, presumably the Bible's original owner, outlived three wives (born in 1833, he married in 1857, 1896, and 1903, and died in 1913 in Mineral Springs, NY). The birthdates of Shank and his wives are all listed, but no offspring are recorded.

Binding:  Publisher's deluxe embossed brown roan in imitation of morocco, covers with central medallions surrounded by ivy motifs, spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-tooled knotwork and floral decorations.

•  Hills 1796. Not in Wolf, From Gothic Windows to Peacocks.   Binding as above, minor rubbing to joints, edges, and extremities. 64 pp. of appended material (index, concordance, metrical Psalms) lacking, with Biblical text and index complete; four plates (of six) lacking, with no indication of their ever having been present. Sewing loosening; first few leaves partially separated. Pages age-toned with some foxing. Front free endpaper torn from outer edge; one leaf with tear from outer margin, extending into text without loss.  (24453)

•  Matthew: Darlow & Moule 6788. John: Darlow & Moule 6789. Both: Pilling, Algonquian, 420; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 296.   Contemporary pebbled brown cloth, front cover detached, spine sunned. Pages age-toned. First two leaves of John each with short tear from upper margin, not touching text.  (26209)

Smith endeavored to provide an extremely literal, word-for-word rendition to enhance her and her sisters' understanding of the text. Regarding the rather tangled results, she notes in her preface that “readers of this book may think it strange that I have made such use of the tenses . . . It seems to me that the original Hebrew had no regard to time, and that the Bible speaks for all ages.”

•  Herbert 2002; Hills 1918; Rumball-Petre 201; Wright, Early Bibles of America, 234–35. On Smith, see: McHenry, Famous American Women, 383 (under entry for Smith, Abby Hadassah).   Publisher's pebbled brown cloth, title and translator's name simply gilt-stamped within blind-stamped panel; recently rebacked and original spine reapplied (spine slightly rumpled), one corner restored, other corners mildly rubbed. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedown with affixed newspaper clipping on the Smith sisters. One page with short tear from lower edge, not extending into text; pages clean. A nice copy of a very desirable Bible.  (27574)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Uncommon: We find only one copy reported as held in a U.S. library.

•  Darlow & Moule 9538.   Publisher's red cloth stamped in blind and with one word in gilt on front cover. A very good copy.  (25045)

Only one U.S. library reports owning a copy of this translation.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Darlow & Moule 9564 (for the 1904 printing).   Publisher's quarter brown cloth with tan paper covers, stamped in blind. “Kazakhstan Russia” in ballpoint on the front free endpaper. A very good copy.  (25046)

The first translation of any book of the Bible into Pangasinan did not come about until 1887, followed by the first Testament in 1908 and the first complete Bible in 1915. This is the first printing of the Pentateuch.  It was translated by Eduardo Benitez assisted by Teodoro Basconcillo and A. Rayner, all of the American Methodist Episcopal Mission. It has chapter headings and some footnotes.

Rare.  Searches of NUC Pre-1956, COPAC, and OCLC locate no copies in U.S. libraries and only the B.F.B.S. copy at Cambridge.

•  North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 346.   Publisher's flexible black fabric over light boards, stamped in blind on front cover; expertly rebacked and remnants of original spine reapplied. Small “nick” to fore-edge of first two leaves, without loss; paper a little age-toned, with interior otherwise quite clean. Housed in a dark blue cloth clamshell case.  (25180)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The title-page states: “This book is one of 300 [copies] paid for by the parishioners of Beecroft and Cheltenham in the Diocese of Sydney, in memory of the Rev. Joseph Young, Rector of the Parish 1903-1926. He passed to his rest on the 21st January, 1945.”

Uncommon.  We trace only two copies in U.S. libraries.

•  Publisher's red cloth. “North Central New Georgia” in ballpoint on the front free endpaper. A very good copy.  (25022)