The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Church of England: Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David. London: Charles Bill, Thomas Newcomb, 1692.
A STUNNING FINELY BOUND BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER PRINTED IN 1692 AND CONTEMPORANEOUSLY BOUND IN THE COTTAGE ROOF STYLE, IN THE MANNER OF THE SOMBRE BINDER.
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A fantastic fine binding, and one of great curiosity to the collector of English fine bindings. The manner of the binding is in the cottage roof style of Samuel Mearne, but with the similar tooling and manner of the Sombre Binder, but also with applied gilt. It's almost as if there were multiple binders working on this one, as we see the typical blindstamping for the Sombre Binder, but then the gilt designs in the Cottage Roof style. Perhaps the original owner and commissioner of the binding was a lover of both styles and wanted them incorporated together. Subsequently, that makes this binding a very interesting and rather unique one, as they're two styles which one would not ordinarily put together, but here do work together very nicely and is superbly executed.
The Book of Common Prayer contained within is an edition of the canonical 1662 revision, and is beautifully red-ruled throughout by a contemporary hand.
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Provenance:
Very early, possibly contemporary, ownership inscription of "Paul Jodrell"
Gifted to the grandfather of "E.T. Seale" by "Bishop Sheldon" and thus kept by descent in the Seale family until acquired by James Tregaskis.
Without internal reference, but retailed by James Tregaskis (The Caxton Head Bookshop), the legendary bookseller who in 1910 became the fourth president of the Antiquarian Book Association, where purchased by an individual in Holborn, London, thence by descent.
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Size: 173 x 231 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[(2), t.p., a1-e2, A1-2U1, t.p., A2-O4, (2)]
Contemporary full black morocco binding with elegant designs in solid and au pontille gold and blind tooling in the manner of the Sombre Binder, as well as the cottage roof style after Samuel Mearne. A magnificent English post-restoration binding which certainly would not be out of place depicted in H.M. Nixon's bibliography of these types of bindings, especially given its incredibly interesting mix of the popular styles of that time. Binding rubbed with remnants of now removed tape, but the removal of this has left some damage, though appears as though this could largely be fixed. Some loss to backstrip at head and foot and in one other compartment, rubbed. Boards show very attractively indeed. Joints rubbed, front cracked along the upper two-thirds, with both boards attached, with the front board slightly fragile. Without shelf lean. Shelf and edge wear with some wear/bumps to corners. Some loss to marbled endpapers in gutter at the front. Page edges slightly non-uniform due to a slightly misbound (or partially detached) gathering. Tipped in leaf to front free endpaper of a prayer. Several ownership inscriptions to blanks and some manuscript bibliographical information pertaining to the BCP's original publications. Full text block red-ruled throughout. Some wormholing throughout, minor. Text block mildly toned, but no more than typical. The full text without loss of sense, collated as complete.
