Provenance: 17th-century spine label with initials “S.F.” and a tree design between them. Ownership signature of Gordon Duff; Yale University (bookplate) — deaccessioned.

•  Edition: Moreau, II, 930; Shaaber, British Authors Printed Abroad, P57; not in Darlow & Moule. Binding: Fogelmark, Flemish and Related Panel-Stamped Bindings, plate XXXII R.46 & pp. 48–49.  Volume rebacked and much of old spine reapplied; lacks title-leaf and last leaf torn across corner with loss replaced of old, colophon partly supplied in manuscript.  Highlights to initials as above; occasional early underlining or another mark and a later pencilled note on last leaf. Missing leaf and torn second one notwithstanding (though they do lower the price), this isa very nice copy in a notable early binding.

The typography is exquisite and Hervagius has enhanced the presentation on the page with attractive decorative headpieces, including one that spans the page and depicts a group of six peasants dancing to the tune of a man playing a flute or “pipe.”

Binding:  16th-century calf over wood boards, covers elaborately tooled to produce an interesting embossed binding of concentric panels: Used are a single fillet (repeatedly, usually in triplets) and a roll featuring urns, flowers, and putti.

Provenance:  Late-17th- / early-18th-century ownership signature of “Pet. Wedderburn; 18th-century bookplate of Lord Eliock; later pencilled signature of “[?].T. Coleridge” (not Samuel Taylor Coleridge; possibly, however, Justice John Coleridge). At back, “Ex dono D. Al: Brown, M.D.” and another ownership inscription entirely in Greek.

•  Darlow & Moule 4614; Dibdin (4th ed.), An Introduction to...Greek and Latin Classics, 86; Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 224; VD16 B2576; Adams B978.   Bound as above; rebacked and edges and corners renewed, with remains of brass clasps. Endpaper reattached. Title-page cut down and mounted. There are a very few instances of old marginalia. A very clean, handsome copy.  (2416)

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)

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)

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf with inked inscription: “These volumes were the property of the Rev. Francis Wayland, D.D., President of Brown University. They are presented to the Bucknell Library [of Crozer Theological Seminary] by Henry G. Weston. June 14, 1900.” The Rev. Weston was the first president of Crozer.

•  Darlow & Moule 4736.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped green leather title and volume labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Title-pages, several others, and lower (closed) page edges institutionally rubber-stamped; title-pages with Wayland's pencilled inscription in upper margin; first text pages each with inked numeral in lower margin. Mild foxing and occasional small stains; last half of vol. II with waterstaining, significant to the eye but not impairing reading; one leaf with short tear from outer margin, touching text without loss. One inked annotation in Greek, a few other small pencilled annotations. Pagination erratic, text complete and uninterrupted. A sound, pleasant, evocative set.  (27246)

An important example of 18th-century fine printing of the Bible

The quarto edition was limited to 500 copies.

Binding:  Contemporary red morocco: Covers bordered with triple-fillet rule and round spine with five raised bands, resulting six spine compartments each with a triple-fillet gilt frame; five compartments each with gilt center device and the sixth with title in gilt. Board edges with gilt double-rule, gilt dentelles on turn-ins, marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

•  Gaskell (enlarged ed.) Add. 1; Darlow & Moule 4755.   Binding as above; front cover with 1.5" scar to front over (from a burn?), otherwise light rubbing only. A clean copy inside with a few pairs of facing leaves showing a narrow and rather odd band of soiling across their top margins; otherwise, only the quite occasional spot or old smudge. A handsome copy.  (29610)

Provenance:  Old inked inscription of John Ebersole, dated 1793, on front free endpaper; later pencilled signatures of Anna Ebersole and another person to pastedown.

•  Evans 9602; Hildeburn, Pennsylvania, 2045; Arndt & Eck, First Century of German Language Printing in the U.S., 296; ESTC W20981.   Contemporary calf with one clasp working and a remnant of the other; moderate rubbing to covers, leather on spine showing flex marks from the tight-back binding. Later spine labels. Faint library pressure-stamp on title-page; signatures as above. Age-toning and some staining; in fact the paper in cleaner condition than is often seen.  (25959)

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)

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.

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)

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.

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.

Provenance:  Late (?) 19th-century signature of Sarah Hunsicker.

•  Adomeit A81. Not in American Imprints.   Publisher's embossed rose-colored cloth binding; spine lettered “The Bible” in gilt. Cloth unevenly (and attractively ) faded. Unusually, remarkably clean.  (30095)

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)

This is the second copy of this Bible that we have had and we are convinced that this is a publisher's deluxe leather binding. A choice of colors was apparently available, for the other copy we had was of an olive-green color.

•  Not in O'Callaghan; not in Darlow & Moule. Bound as above, corners a little bumped with a bit of long ago refurbishing thereto, dulling outermost elements of gilt border (only) on front cover, just at those corners. Faint waterstaining in lower inside area for the first few pages (only). The whole very attractive and well preserved.

Binding:  Contemporary black morocco, covers framed in blind with embossed arabesque corner decorations; spine with embossed geometrical designs and gilt-stamped title, board edges and turn-ins gilt stamped. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of author and prominent Bible and bindings collector Frederick E. Maser. Front fly-leaves with private owner's small rubber-stamp (Richard - WP - Morris) and inked ownership inscription (John Lempriere Delagarde) dated 1852; front free endpaper with later inscription (Gordon D. Savage).

•  Darlow & Moule 1164; Herbert 387–88; Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 53.   Binding as above, now strong, with front cover reattached and moderate rubbing only. Bookplate and ownership notes as above. A few pages with faint spotting, most pages clean. A lovely and notably usable copy of a perennially interesting English Bible.  (27130)

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)

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)

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)

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.

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)