The Holy Bible

English Restoration binding with silver furniture

The King James Version, splendidly preserved in an English Restoration binding of gilt panelled dark brown morocco furnished in silver with engraved centrepieces bearing the monogram 'AA' and the armorial device of three mullets or six points pierces, cornerpieces, and clasps in full working order.

Binding 'furniture' originally served a functional purpose, with bosses and cornerpieces helping to protect the covers from wear and tear, and clasps employed to prevent the parchment leaves of manuscript books from warping. The advent of paper and the movement away from wood to pasteboard had largely made these features redundant by the end of the seventeenth century. Instead, as here, metalwork survived as a decorative feature which enhanced the binding of important devotional works, whilst also helping to keep these texts, which were more likely to be carried about, secure (see David Pearson, English Bookbinding Styles 1450-1800, pp26-30).

Our example is bound without the Apocrypha. Darlow and Moule note that the Apocrypha in their example (no. 469) is possibly supplied from another edition, and that a different copy is lacking the Apocrypha.

4to (24 x 18 cm); without the Apocrypha, engraved general title, slightly cropped at foot of engraved area with the sculpture's signature just cut through and re-margined, later inscriptions in pen to margins, letterpress NT title, textblock toned with some dampstaining to gutter margin of first 6 quires, occasional spotting; 17th-century dark brown goatskin, the covers panelled in gilt with filets and a roll, between the panels tooled in blind with fern fronds, adorned with engraved-silver centre and cornerpieces and clasps in full working order, the upper centrepiece with monogram 'AA', the lower with engraved armorial device of three mullets of six points all pierced within a lozenge border, rebacked, preserving the original gilt spine which has been laid down, all edges gilt, the lower spine-side cornerpiece of the lower board loose from fitting, a little rubbed, overall an excellent example.

ESTC R37304; Herbert 605; DM 469; Wing B2225A.