BIBLE
FIRST NOT IN US
The Holy Bible, containing the Old Testament and the New. (with) The Whole Booke of Psalmes.
London, Bonham Norton and John Bill (with) Printed for the Companie of Stationers, 1625 (with) n.d.£4,500.00
12mo. Two parts in one vol. 339 unnumbered ll; pp. (x) 99 (ix). Roman letter. Without the Apocrypha at the end of the Old Testament, as usual. T-p and divisional title within woodcut architectural border depicting David with harp, t-p of Psalms within typographical border. Woodcut initials, typographical headpiece, woodcut tailpiece. Recent autograph and cat. no. to ffep. Very good copies in contemp. figurative embroidered silk and gold and silver thread over canvas. Joints at head and tail of spine worn to backing, some repair. Cover worn but panels substantially intact, 2 female figures within architectural borders in green, red and blue, gold and silver thread, spine with flowers, edges gilt, rich contemp. gauffering. Rubbed.
An unusual and attractive C17th embroidered binding with rare depictions of women. The great majority of small format embroidered bindings depict naturalistic scenes, flowers, fruits, birds, insects, as well as geometrical and other patterns. Very, very few of those that survive bear representations of human and other figures. The women depicted here are holding what may be cornucopias, and are likely therefore to be depictions of Plenty, one half of an allegorical duo – the other being Peace, usually shown with a palm branch (see Henry Davis Gift II, 76) – that ‘appear on many of the bindings of this type that were sold ready-bound in the milliners’ shops’ (Howard Nixon and Mirjam Foot, The History of Decorated Bookbinding in England (Oxford, 1992), p. 55).
Both works are extremely rare, the first not appearing in ESTC; of the second, OCLC and ESTC note copies in the US only at Simon Fraser and Folger.
I: Darlow & Moule 403. Not in ESTC. II: ESTC S124394.