Binding; William & Mary Prayer Book. The Book of Common ...

Hammer

£280

Binding; William & Mary Prayer Book. The Book of Common Prayer [...], London: Printed by Charles Bill, and the executrix of Thomas Newcomb, Deceas'd, 16[?94], [bound with] The Whole Book of Psalms [...], Oxford: Printed by the University Printers, 1703, printed in red-ruled double-column throughout, apparently complete, signatures collating: A¹², B⁶, C-S¹², T⁶; A-D¹², [1A1] (i.e. title) defective, ditto C1-4 & P9, O3 lacking the lower-right corner only with no loss of text, P2-7 inner-gutter split but holding, finely bound in a contemporary, if anachronistic, 'Restoration' design binding of silver-mounted crimson morocco, richly gilt with meandering flowering leafy tendrils, within a shaped rectangular black-painted reserve, gilt fillet and beaded border, the covers centred by a silver plaque monogrammed: AB, the silver edges and clasp chased with foliage and outlined in wrigglework, the singular extant clasp with maker's mark only: ?I/JM in Gothic script, conforming five-compartment flat spine, uneven edges with movements and traces of gilding, gilt foliate dentelles, polychrome block-printed endpapers picked-out in gilt, possibly Dutch, verso of recto endpaper with a manuscript quatrain, contemporaneous to 1703: Faith in Gold that Self denyes (sic),/Wisdom with her self Supplyes:/Filling the Soul with th' Eternal Good/When she wills not what she Would,  12mo (13 x 7cm)

BCP title-page defective, so the suggested imprint date of 1694 has been surmised from the presence of Queen Mary's imprimatur leaf [T6] (though dated 1692) and 1694 being the last year a duodecimo prayer-book was printed before her death on 28th December, 1694, and thus the closest to the 1703 Psalms with which the BCP is bound with. 

Provenance: 1) AB, presumably a member of the Burman family of Burman's (later Hathaway Farm), Shottery, near Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, an established Warwickshire farming family and neighbours of William Shakespeare's wife's family; AB's commissioned binding with monogrammed mounts, and almost certainly their verse to verso of recto endpaper. 2) Lucy Burman, slightly later 18th c ink MS ownership inscription on title-page. 3) W.R. Bunbury/1854, dated ink MS ownership inscription to ffep.

More Information

Sold as a binding and as such not liable for return.