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)

Provenance:  Manuscript ownership inscription of John Ray dated 1716 (on retained fly-leaf); ownership signature of Robert L. Wilson, New York, 1818 (on title-page); gilt supra-libros of Barzillai Slosson, dated 1829. Later in the Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

Binding:  American binding of dark blue goat, richly gilt, with wide floral border on covers and spine distinctively gilt using rules and floral roll. Board edges with a gilt roll; turn-ins gilt tooled. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Gilt supra-libros of Barzillai Slosson as above. Unsigned.

Barzillai Slosson may have been related to the lawyer of the same name who was active in Kent, CT, at the end of the 18th century and into the fourth decade of the 19th, whose account books are in the Yale Law Library; perhaps, the Barzillai who graduated from Columbia College in 1818 and later moved to Geneva, NY, where he was active and successful in business and civic affairs.

•  Wing B2719. Darlow & Moule; 4702; ESTC R236848; Sowerby, Catalogue of the library of Thomas Jefferson, 1473.   Binding as above, lightly rubbed. Pages closely cropped in the 19th-century rebinding and some initial or final letters touched or lost. Very good.  (34786)

•  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:  Straight-grained roan, covers gilt-ruled and spine gilt extra.

•  O'Callaghan 213; Hills 765 (not calling for a frontis.) ; not in Herbert.   Binding rubbed, with corners bumped and spine-gilt faded but still softly pretty; lacking the frontispiece (which Hills does not call for) and title-page partially detached at gutter. Pp. 5–6 and 229–30 chipped on lower outer corner, with loss of part of page number from the former; free endpapers chipped; some old dog-ears; light foxing and occasional spots, and occasional light waterstaining. An attractive, solid small American Testament.  (7513)

Provenance:  19th-century ownership signatures of Luther P. Hubbard (undated) and R.T. Hall (1894); after ca. 1954 in The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

•  Darlow & Moule 1793; Hills 826; Rumball-Petre 197.   Publisher's sheep, spine dry and tending to flake; front board once detached and resecured with a cloth tape repair at the hinge (inside). Foxing as usual. Priced to encourage better repair to its binding, this is a complete, sound copy.  (33830)

Binding: Brown publisher's cloth, spine lettered and stamped in gilt, covers framed in blind around floral design with front flower gilt, all edges gilt.

Provenance:  Pencilled signature of Wilie Sheldon on front endpaper; later in the Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

•  Adomeit A79; American Imprints 23308.   Bound as above, lightly rubbed especially to gilt areas, faded and somewhat dust-darkened with a few small spots. Lacking frontispiece and marked as above, light age-toning with a few spots, many corners bent or worn away. Housed in a much larger mustard buckram clamshell with gilt lettering and evidence of library label on spine; clearly, valued.  (36597)

Binding:  Publisher's green “contour” moiré cloth over boards with printed paper label on spine.

•  Hills 881; O'Callaghan 233-36; American Imprints 23377. On binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823–50, Moi4.   Bound as above; rebacked and most of original spine laid downwith hinges (inside) strengthened. Six-digit number stamped in lower margin of one preliminary page; moderate foxing, mostly in margins.  (35413)

The engraved title-page's vignette is of Abel's burnt sacrifice, after W. Hamilton, opposite a frontispiece of the destruction of Pharaoh's host, after Loutherbourg; both were engraved by Ellis.

Binding:  19th-century red sheep, spine gilt extra with arabesque design; covers framed in gilt double rules surrounding a rolled gilt design and a blind roll of zig-zags. Board edges and turn-ins with a similar zig-zag design in gilt; deep blue endpapers and all edges gilt.

Provenance:  The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

•  Bound as above, spine and section of back cover slightly darkened, light rubbing, more at spine tips and joints, a few spots of soiling. Light age-toning and pencilling, booklabel at back. A nice little Philadelphia Bible in a graceful, refined American binding.  (36516)

Binding:  This copy is exquisitely bound in full black leather in good imitation of morocco, elaborately stamped in gold on the covers forming a five-element frame or border, with gilt tooling on the board edges and with gilt inner dentelles. The spine has slightly raised bands and elaborate gold stamping in its compartments. 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.

Provenance:  The name “Sarah B. Leverett” is lettered in gilt on the front cover, and the same name is given in precise gothic calligraphy on the front free endpaper.

•  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. Evidence to endpapers of the volume's once having been sewn into a chemise or wrapper; old notes just discernible (not really readable) in a minute hand on front free endpaper (i.e., “behind” Sarah's name); see our image. Faint waterstaining in lower inside area for the first few pages (only). The whole very attractive and well preserved.  (2666)

The wrappers are illustrated on the front with vignettes of children playing various games and on the back with a fancy border framing a publisher's advertisement interesting in itself.

•  Pomeroy, Alexander Anderson, 1945(a); Carstens, Babcocks, 788.   Publisher's pale pink wrappers (now faded) printed in black. Small hole from natural flaw in lower corner of front wrapper; rear wrapper partially detached; foxing, sometimes heavy, throughout.  (31237)

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)

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, and one silently telling a poignant personal story. (4072)

Leeser took as his basic text the Tauchnitz “Editio stereotypa” of 1831, which enjoyed the cumulative scholarship of Johannes Leusden (1624–99), Johann Simonis (1698–1768), Everardus van der Hooght (1642?–1716), and August Hahn (1792–1863). This text is also stereotyped and is printed with the points (i.e., vocalized).

•  Beyond scope of Singer, Judaica Americana; too late for Rosenbach, Jewish.   Mid-19th-century half black roan, interestingly gilt-tooled round spine without raised bands; stone-pattern marbled paper over boards and all edges red, with joints (outside) lightly rubbed as are the boards. Light discoloration of pastedowns; text clean. A good++ copy, neat and solid.  (37221)

George Livermore, editor and sponsor of this reprint, was a book collector known for his impressive collection of rare Bibles. He possessed what he believed at the time to be one of only two surviving copies of the 1643 Souldier's Pocket Bible, with WorldCat presently reporting three copies although not the one that Livermore knew of.

The reprint, which was produced“for a few friends who may value such a memorial of one of the most important periods of English History,” includes a prefatory note from Livermore discussing the history of the original as he understood it, and bears a facsimile of its title-page.

Provenance:  Inscribed in ink on the front free endpaper, “Hon. Geo. S. Hillard with the best regards of his friend Geo. Livermore, July 4, 1861.” George Stillman Hillard was an American lawyer who developed a legal practice in Boston with American politician and abolitionist Charles Sumner. Later bookplate of the Pacific School of Religion on front pastedown.

•  Not in Hills.   Brown morocco, boards with blind double-ruled borders and gilt lettering to front one, all edges gilt; rubbed and abraded. Front free endpaper slightly discolored around edges and inscription faint but very readable; text clean and clear. An intriguing presentation copy.  (37831)

As plain as the binding may be, it has a binder's ticket: “Watkins Binder.”

•  Banks, p. 94; Pilling, Algonquian, p. 421; Darlow & Moule 6786; Newberry Library, Ayer Collection, Micmac 11; Pilling, Proof-Sheets, 3181g; Evans, Masinahikan, 519; Sabin 67763; Lande S195.   Original sprinkled sheep, loss of leather at spine and one area of abrasion on rear board. Otherwise, very clean.  (36317)

Binding:  Brown blind-embossed calf with ornate strapwork designs surrounding a central cartouche, “blank” areas textured with a wavy pattern like moiré silk; spine with blind rules “forming” spine compartments.

Evidence of readership: A few passages marked with pencilled X'es and a few pages turned in for ready finding (e.g., the 23d psalm; Luke 7, a chapter of miracles; Revelation's description of heaven). Two slips laid into Hebrews citing verses with names following — suggested reading from or for those people? Prayer memos?

•  Not in Hills.   Binding as above, a little rubbed. Blind pressure-stamp of the York County Bible Society and private ownership signature on front free endpaper. Age-toning and some foxing, brown stain in lower margin of last few leaves (i.e., “Contents”). A rather nice copy made particularly interesting by its signs of use.  (34165)

Binding(s): Spine plain and the volume with very heavy sculpted boards, front cover in brown leather and rear one in black French morocco, each with arabesque panelling and biblical quotations surrounding a pointed oval containing the words “Holy Bible.” Front cover with quotations, oval and title, and other elements gilt; back one stamped in blind with oval and its contents only gilt; silk endpapers and all edges marbled. Two sample spines have been glued to the front pastedown, and an alternate front cover in black French morocco is glued to the back one; the second cover is gothic-ecclesiastical in style and its gilt “HOLY BIBLE” is crossed with a narrow banner reading, “THY WORD IS TRUTH.” A rather dizzying explanation of the binding permutations offered is bound in before the front fly-leaf.

•  Not in Arbour, Canvassing Books.   Bound as above, with rubbing especially to edges, spine, and back cover; offsetting from spine examples to front fly-leaf. Light to moderate age-toning depending on paper. A production that tells us something significant about the Bible book agent's sales calls: that is, with so much to show/share the bookseller's visits would not have been short and they would have been their own entertainment.  (37245)

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.”

Priding herself as a student of ancient languages particularly on her Hebrew, this translator closely followed the Masoretic text for the O.T. and consistently used “Jehovah” for the Tetragrammaton.

•  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), and Sampson, With Her Own Eyes: The Story of Julia Smith, Her Life, and Her Bible.  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)

Darlow and Moule say of printing in Chipewyan to their time: “With the exception of parts of the Book of Common Prayer and some hymns, no other Chipewyan editions have been printed.” That is not exactly true, for a few books of the Bible and the Gospels had also appeared prior to the publication of their monumental Bible bibliography; but the language was (and is) stillnot a common one to see.

William West Kirkby (1827–1907) of the Church Missionary Society translated various works into Chipewyan, Wyandot, Slavey, and Cree. He may well have also been the first Anglican missionary to penetrate the American Arctic Circle.

Provenance:  Gift inscription from A.D. Keewatin to the Rev. Arthur Henry Gibson on his ordination to the Diaconate in St. Paul's Church, Churchill, Manitoba in 1925.

•  Darlow & Moule 3021; Newberry Library, Ayer Collection, Chippewa-36 (erring in confusing Chipewyan as synonomous with Chippewa!); Banks (2nd ed.), 21; Evans, Masinahikan, 036; Pilling, Athapascan, p. 47 Not in Pilling, Proof-sheets.   Publisher's textured black cloth, very plain. Gift inscription on a piece of paper glued to front fly-leaf; some adhesion of fly-leaf to verso of front free endpaper and an ink spot on closed fore-edges of the textblock. A very good copy.  (37095)