The volume's title-page shows the simple all-caps word “Biblia” printed within a decorative woodcut frame below which is a version of the Estienne printer's device. The text includes the Apocrypha and Psalms at the end of the New Testament; the inner margin contains subject headings, references, and variants, while the outer margin provides the above-mentioned notes. The edition, in octavo, was Estienne's second venture only at producing a Bible in that format. This copy is lightly ruled in red throughout.

Binding:   17th-century limp vellum with slightly yapp edges and evidence of ties (now perished), covers ruled in gilt with fleur-de-lis corner devices to form a frame for a gilt center device; spine with gilt rolls and center devices. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  18th-century ownership signature on rear pastedown of Margaret Sizer, Berwick on Tweed.

•  Renouard 62.2; Adams B1036; Darlow & Moule 6127; Schreiber, Estiennes, 83.   Binding as above, with hand-inked spine title; vellum soiled and loosening from the text block, with 2.5" split at front joint (outside). Front pastedown largely lost, remnants with pencilled annotations. Title-page and last page dust-soiled. Overall a good++ copy, handsome on shelf and satisfying in hand.  (38197)

The paper stock used for the interleaving has the classic ProPatria watermark and that and its countermark match Churchill's 151, which has a starting date of 1799.

•  Darlow & Moule 4650; Adams B1711. On the interleaves' watermarks, see: Churchill, Watermarks in paper in Holland, England, France, etc., in the XVII and XVIII centuries.   19th-century half vellum with German pastepaper over boards, spine with tinted and tooled label, text recased and new endpapers; vol. I (only) of this production, without the Epistles and Revelation. Title-page creased and dust-soiled, all leaves before pp. 9/10 rodent-gnawed in lower outside corner with loss of paper but not of text or manuscript annotation, and a bit of light waterstaining to rearmost leaves only. An important edition and a singular copy.  (37032)

Binding:  Early 19th-century signed binding by Hering (stamped on front free endpaper): oxblood morocco framed and panelled in gilt triple fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title and dateline and gilt-ruled compartments, turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt. Hering, one of the most prominent London binders of his period, was spoken of by Timperley as“the head of the craft” at that time.

Provenance:  Laid-in letter from a London bookseller to Pennsylvania collector John S. Cochran of Lancaster, dated 1948, optimistically but incorrectly affirming this to be “the earliest of many editions of this date.”

•  See Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 116; Darlow & Moule 193; Herbert 254; STC 2178. For note on Hering, see: Charles Henry Timperley's Dictionary of printers and printing (1839), p. 835.   Binding as above, lightly rubbed and spine slightly sunned; front hinge (inside) cracked, joint holding strongly. Two original brown silk bookmarks present and still attached. Front free endpaper with affixed slip of earlier cataloguing. A few early leaves with old repairs to upper or outer areas, in one case resulting in slight darkening of one woodcut and in another with loss of printed text, very carefully and neatly supplied in ink. Scattered light spotting, pages clean overall. A sound copy of an interesting Bible, modestly but elegantly bound.  (30958)

Binding:  18th-century crimson straight-grain morocco, covers framed in dotted gilt rules, board edges and turn-ins with dotted gilt rule, spine similarly ruled and with gilt-stamped title. All edges gilt and a light blue silk ribbon placemarker still present. Almost certainly done by Roger Payne, Syston Park's preferred binder.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplates of H. Walter Webb and Syston Park (i.e., the famousSyston Park Library, collected at Lincolnshire by Sir John Hayford Thorold, Bart., and his predecessors); front free endpaper with bookplate of Leila Howard Codman; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.The Sotheby's catalogue of the Syston Park sale suggests that the present copy was Sir John's duplicate, this example having marbled endpapers rather than the “silk linings” described in another copy.

•  Darlow & Moule 4679; Willems 396.   Bound as above, spine slightly dimmed. Bookplates as above; front free endpaper and fly-leaf with affixed slips of old cataloguing and pencilled annotations. Pages clean. A nice copy with pleasing, in fact prestigious, provenance.  (37819)

•  Whole Bible: Darlow & Moule 469; Herbert 606; Wing (rev. ed.) B2225; ESTC R43605. Psalms: Wing (rev. ed.) B2458; ESTC R39598.   Binding as above, lightly rubbed. Ex-library: Bookplate, small rubber-stamp in lower margin of engraved title, charge pocket at rear. Three leaves torn and repaired; some upper and lower margins closely trimmed affecting or costing captions, catchwords, signature marks, etc.; some foxing, dust-soiling, age-toning; waterstain to rear endpapers and faintly into final four leaves of the Psalms. Contemporary ownership note as above. Faults noted, this is yet a handsome mid-17th-century Bible — and, solid.  (34195)

Binding:  Contemporary calf, round spine, gilt spine extra, handsome metal and leather closures with gilt tooling on the leather; very pretty, simple single gilt-roll border on each board. German floral paste-decorated endpapers and all edges red.

Provenance:  Ownership signatures of I. Duvarus (1774); J.G. Drunnburg (1822) Johann O. Nordendam (1830) on front fly-leaf.

•  Darlow & Moule 8966; Graesse 103.   Leather “shellacked” and shiny; volume now solid with front board reattached using the long-fiber method and areas of spine similarly improved. A sophisticated copy: four leaves of the prefactory matter (b1–4) are inserted from a small copy (possibly even a different edition). Some early underscoring; overallvery decent as a text and very attractive on shelf or in hand.  (36974)

Darlow and Moule (4557) observe: “Beyond their interest to the student of textual criticism, these fragments possess special value for the philologist as preserving what is 'by several centuries the oldest specimen of Teutonic speech.'”

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

•  Darlow & Moule 1604 & 4557; Brunet, II, 1118.   Late 17th- or early 18th-century Cambridge style calf; recently well rebacked with blind-tooled device in four of the five spine compartments, a very dark brown leather spine label neatly gilt, and new endpapers. Despite provenance, NO library markings. A very nice copy.  (36163)

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 (rev. ed.) 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)

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

•  Wing (rev. ed.) B2801aA; Darlow & Moule 1450 (Polyglot), 626 (English), 3329 (Dutch), 3768 (French).; ESTC R212805.   Contemporary dark calf, modestly ruled in blind; spine label gilt-tooled, front free endpaper lacking. Ex-library as above with bookplate, charge pocket, and date due slip, but no stamps on any pages. Ambitious yet compact, and comfortable when handheld, this is an attractive production.  (36320)

Binding:  Contemporary black goat with a complicated and beautiful overall pattern of gilt tooling using acorn, star, and flower devices, a leaf-vine roll, a double- and a triple-fillet, hashed triangles, and a few other tools. The tall slim central panel is accented at all corners with heart forms, these revealed by three survivors on the back cover to have beenred leather onlays. Spine also elaborately gilt-tooled with some of the same tools reappearing and with two compartments incorporating capital letters hard to make out: “H OP K / I N S”? All edges gilt and gauffered.

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

The collation by signatures of this edition of the Bible does not match that in any of the bibliographies or databases listed below for an 8vo Bible dated 1682, 1690, or 1692.

•  Not in Darlow & Moule; not in Herbert; not in Wing (rev. ed.); not in ESTC.   Binding as above, with light overall abrading; some portions of board edges and the four corners of the boards restored, with some still/again abraded; gilt faded in some portions and elsewhere bright. Red-ruled text has been spared trimming of captions or catchwords; very occasionally a sidenote has been just touched. The leaf on which Jesus declares that he is the way, the truth, and the life is firmly dog-eared. Overall a handsomely produced and well-cherished King James Bible, with S&H, in a still very impressive Restoration binding.  (34788)

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)

•  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.  (4031)

Binding:  Contemporary black morocco, covers framed in gilt roll and single gilt fillet with red- and gilt-stamped IHS central medallions surrounded by gilt-stamped flames, with gilt-stamped corner fleurons; spine with gilt-tooled bands and compartment decorations. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with gilt-stamped red leather ex-libris label of Ann Hall, dated 1798.

•  ESTC T95085; Darlow & Moule 953.   Binding as above; extremities rubbed, sides with small scuffs and scratches, medallions rubbed and gilt dimmed in spots, spine leather cracked. Corners of front pastedown and free endpaper chewed; front free endpaper with early inked doodles; pages trimmed closely enough to occasionally touch a signature marking. and some corners bumped. One leaf with tear from outer margin, extending into text without loss; two pages with small ink blots in lower and outer margins, not affecting text; four leaves with lower outer corners crumpled. Worn, yet still a very pleasing example of its type.  (35351)

Evidence of Readership (or Something else — Engagement?):  Former owners and their children have filled the blank endpapers with names and scribbles in pencil and ink; the New Testament title-page verso and an endpaper record important family dates, such as Timothy Hall's marriage to Elizabeth Morgan and Harry Harmon Hall's birth in 1801, while endpapers and blank sections of the Bible have provided scribble space and handwriting practice for Harry and a presumably different Timothy. All of this endearing, none of it off-putting.

•  ESTC W4514; Evans 24098; Hills, English Bible in America, 40; Sabin 5175; O'Callaghan 45–6.   18th-century calf, spine with raised bands; well-rubbed with leather crackled and loss at spine extremities, especially to top compartment. Ex-library as above, light pencilling on t.-p., pencilled call number and accession number on title-page verso; family penmanship and genealogical contributions as noted. One torn corner, a short tear on N.T. title-page, a handful of leaves trimmed closely with loss of a letter per line; light to moderate age-toning with the occasional spot. An interesting Bible bibliographically, and a “family” Bible in every sense.  (36652)

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)

•  Herbert 1402; Hills 53; O'Callaghan 51; Rumball-Petre 175; Wright, Early Bibles of America, 325; Evans 30065; ESTC W004506.   Early 19th-century mottled sheep, covers framed in blind roll, spine with gilt-stamped title label and compartment decorations; binding scuffed and rubbed, gilt now mostly lost, front cover with inkstain, front joint cracked but holding and back one holed, back free endpaper lacking. Spine head chipped with one label partly cut (yes, cut) away, and foot with inked shelving number; other library markings including institutional bookplate, pressure- and rubber-stamps, and a few typical annotations. Pages age-toned to browned with offsetting and foxing ranging from mild to moderate, occasional spotting and smudging, some dog-eared corners; some leaves with margins chipped or short edge tears, a few with tears extending into text (some with loss of a few letters). Two leaves in Jeremiah torn with upper portions lacking, one leaf crudely repaired some time ago, last leaf tattered; two final leaves (last portion of tables section and the subscribers list) lacking, with scraps of the “Table of Kindred & Affinity” laid in. Marked by time and use, still an agreeable and interesting example of a noteworthy edition.  (31848)

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; nicely rebacked with original label laid on. Title-page and contents inscribed as described above; endpapers waterstained, and pages with light spots of foxing. Paper in many sections faintly blue.  (11489)

Provenance:  19th-century ownership stamp of “Hiram Bell” at top of title-page.

Evidence of Readership: A few lines from Gray's “Elegy written in a Country Churchyard” are pencilled in English on a front blank (“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen . . .”); and “pour passer le temps” is pencilled in under the list showing the testament's order of books on the title-page verso!

•  Not in Darlow & Moule; Shaw & Shoemaker 22372.   Acid-stained sheep, flat spine with gilt rules and a burgundy leather title label, gilt-lettered; lightly rubbed, dry with some cracking. Inside, scattered spots of light browning. Inkstain(?) to advertisement and rear blank leaves, not hindering reading. A nice copy.  (35161)

Provenance:  Signature of Edward H. Mills dated 27 May 1843 on front pastedown. From the collection of Michael Zinman.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 24835; Hills 213; Herbert 1560; O'Callaghan 110; Wright, Early Bibles of America, 192–93; Rumball-Petre 189.   Contemporary sheep, rubbed with joints opening and leather lost at spine head; wormwork to spine and some margins of text. Volume “soft” with sewing pulling away from spine and a few gatherings separated; text foxed and browned, as often; several leaves, perhaps two dozen, damaged with some loss of text, perhaps a dozen more with small tears. Lacking two leaves of the Old Testament, all others present. A distressed copy of this important edition and priced accordingly.  (35967)

Provenance:   From the Michael Zinman collection.

•  Hills 301; O'Callaghan p. 135; Shaw & Shoemaker 36953.   Brown period calf with damaged spine, lacking perhaps ten percent of leather, and rubbing; joints open with rear board firmly attached, front one loosening; old ink and pencil annotations on endpapers. Some gatherings closely trimmed with no loss of text; one leaf torn with loss of part or whole of bottom line of one column, each side. Foxing, browning, age-toning throughout; waterstaining intermittently. An interesting example of how stereotype plates can “move” after they are made.  (35968)

•  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.  (7970)

The paper used for the text seems to be native-made laid stock.

WorldCat and NUC combine to locate only six copies in U.S. libraries, one of which is this one, properly deaccessioned.

Provenance:  Ex–Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School library; properly deaccessioned.

•  Darlow & Moule 7651; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 826.   Contemporary boards covered with blue paper a bit scuffed, soiled, and with areas of wear; original paper shelfback replaced with cloth of a closely matching color. A very little library pencilling; no stamps.  (35167)

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.  (20597)

Binding:  Late 19th-century black morocco, spine gilt-extra: lettered and stamped in gilt with dots along raised bands and arabesque stamps in compartments; covers framed in triple fillets, board edges with a gilt roll of dots, turn-ins with gilt daisy roll, nonpareil marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

Provenance: A previous owner has added a Greek inscription dated Christmas 1873 in ink on a front fly-leaf; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1828.17; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), p. 81; Darlow & Moule, 4816.   Binding as above, very gently rubbed with a few small scuffs. Light age-toning with one small spot; half-title lacking, frontispiece obviously reattached. Provenance markings as above, a few small marginal pencil or colored pencil markings, mostly at the start of the text. A petite and elegant production in a binding that is, frankly, about aspristine and classic as you are going to get.  (38282)

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:  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)

Provenance:  Tipped-in leaf with inked inscription: “Hannah M. Williams / Presented by directive from her grandmother Williams when on her death bed with this injunction to be read with careful attention”; in pencil below is “A precious legacy.” Williams (or a contemporary) apparently took the directive seriously; there are several instances of pencilled bracketing, marks of emphasis, and marginalia in the “precious legacy” hand.

Binding:  Contemporary diced-grain red sheep, covers framed in gilt roll surrounding gilt-stamped acanthus and acorn design, spine with gilt-stamped title (“Polyglott Testament”) and decorative motifs, board edges with gilt roll. All edges gilt.

•  See Hills, English Bible in America, 768 for 1831 ed.; 1841 not listed.   Bound as above, rubbed at joints and extremities with front hinge (inside) cracked yet sound. Front pastedown and free endpaper with pencilled inscriptions dated 1853; inscription leaf as above; one front fly-leaf with pencilled annotations (and with hole in lower center). Additional annotations as above; one plate with “My Saviour” pencilled in lower margin. Intermittent mild foxing and a bit of other staining; a few corners bumped. Worn, yes — still luminous in its own way, and an interesting example of two early 19th-century women's engagement with the Bible.  (35204)

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)

Prize copy: Front pastedown with presentation bookplate to Neal W. Ireland from New York Sunday School No. 41, for “good conduct and diligent study” in 1847.

•  Hills, English Bible in America, 1356.   Contemporary straight-grained sheep framed in single gilt fillet, spine with gilt-stamped title, moderately rubbed overall with front hinge (inside) cracked and back hinge starting; sewing holding but just starting to loosen. Front pastedown with bookplate as above; endpapers with a few pencilled annotations. Pages gently age-toned with scattered faint spots of foxing; one leaf dog-eared in Ephesians. An appealing little Testament with a charming engraved presentation plate.  (35189)

The printing of this Bible was spread over a quarter of a century, with the fourth volume not appearing until 1872

Provenance:  Early inked inscription: “Rev. S.S. Day [/] From his friend & fellow-laborer in the great work of Missions, Lyman Jewett [/] Baptist Mission House, Nellore, Jan. 18th 1850.” Samuel S. Day (1808–71) was the founder of the Telugu Mission at Nellore, the first of its kind; Jewett (1813–97) was the first to translate the Bible into Telugu, an Indian language related to Sanskrit.

•  Darlow & Moule 8002; NSTC 2B22470; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 1142.   Contemporary brown cloth, recently rebacked with similar cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; original cloth with edges rubbed and areas of discoloration. Front fly-leaf (with inscription) and English title-page with margins repaired. English title-page and one other leaf perforation-stamped by the Philadelphia Divinity School; Sanskrit title-page with inked numeral in lower margin. Pages faintly age-toned. A few corners chipped; one leaf with tear in upper margin, not touching text. Occasional pencilled marginalia, some in English and some possibly in Telugu. A solid copy with nice provenance.  (36322)

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)

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf inscribed “Benjamin Fay Mills [/] From Pa & Ma [/] Christmas – 1862.” The New Jersey–born Mills (1857–1916), in his adult life, became a prominent evangelist and socially conscious humanitarian; a Christian Socialist who at various times was an itinerant preacher and lecturer said to have converted hundreds of thousands of hearers over more than a decade, a minister to the First Unitarian Church in Oakland, CA, and the founder and leader of the Los Angeles Fellowship and the Chicago Fellowship. Henry Miller cited Mills's as a life that was “singular and inspiring” to him (Miller, The Books in My Life). The frontispiece here has been partially colored in and captioned “Garden of EDEN” in a youthful hand, presumably Mills's. Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard; small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Publisher's textured green cloth, front cover framed in blind surrounding decorative gilt-stamped title and book vignette, back cover with same design entirely in blind; rubbed, back cover showing light wear. Inscription as above; frontispiece with caption supplied in contemporary blue; title-page with Mills's childishly pencilled name. Scattered spots of mild foxing; first few leaves (including frontispiece and title-page) with semi-circle of waterstaining in upper margin, touching small section of upper portion of image; one leaf with short tear from outer margin, not extending past frame of page. Hieroglyphic Bibles are always entertaining examples of juvenile religious instruction, and this one is particularly delightful as likely the first Bible owned by a much-admired American religious leader.  (38464)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with inked inscription: “O.R. Morgan 1859"; front free endpaper with pencilled inscription: “From W.O. Morgan's Collection of Bibles.”

Binding:  Signed contemporary embossed black morocco with covers offering a textured rosette medallion within a textured panel that is itself set within multiple differently textured frames; spine embossed in blind with four ruled compartments, one containing volume identification in gilt, the others presenting two elegant diamond figures and a quatrefoil upon uniform net-like backgrounds. All edges gilt in interesting counterpoint to the sumptuous but somber black-and-blind style of the binding! — which bears the small ticket of “Watkins / Binder” of “Gravel Lane / Southwark” on its back pastedown. (As our reference below to Wolf intimates, this binding has interesting transatlantic cousins.)

•  Darlow & Moule 9639. For binding: Wolf, From Gothic Windows to Peacocks, 40 & ff.   Binding as above, volume strong with rear board reattached via the Japanese tissue method and hinge reinforced; spine edges and extremities slightly worn and very unobtrusively refurbished. Endpapers with annotations and ticket as above, title-page verso with pencilled institutional inscription and lightly rubber-stamped numeral. Pages faintly age-toned with a very few scattered light spots; a few leaves with lower corners bumped. An unusual N.T., in a striking binding.  (36976)

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 with light restoration; front pastedown with traces of a now-absent bookplate. Small area of front joint (outside) expertly resealed/repaired; the weight of this substantial volume dictates storage on the volume's back, not its lower edge. A lavishly produced Victorian New Testament, in an impressive binding.

Among the doctor's publications was an article on “The Accuracy of the Authorized Version of the Old Testament” (1911), including the Hebrew psalms.

Provenance:  Donated by Mrs. Betteridge to the seminary library, with institutional bookplate noting this on rear pastedown.

•  Recent black moiré silk, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Ex-library with bookplate on rear pastedown as above, pressure-stamp on title-page, call number in lower margin of second leaf; paper brittle, dust- or sometimes soot-soiled(?) at edges, and prone to chipping. Replete with scholia, this isa stunning testament to one scholar's study of the O.T.  (31077)

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)