Bible, English | King James version. Cambridge, 1638, fine red morocco by the Geometrical Compartment Binder

Bible, English, King James version

The Holy Bible [Book of Common Prayer; Metrical Psalms]. Cambridge: Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel, 1638

Folio (365 x 225mm.), engraved title woodcut initials, text in double columns, EARLY EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RED MOROCCO GILT BY THE GEOMETRICAL COMPARTMENT BINDER, the covers richly gilt in a late imitation of the French fanfare style, incorporating a central panel of characteristic square lobed compartments, gilt edges, some marginal tearing fraying and repairs, resulting in occasional loss, lower margin of 3H3 removed with slight loss, some dampstaining, BCP title defective and mounted, last leaf of metrical psalms holed affecting text, some slight wear and soiling to binding, rebacked retaining original spine, lower joint cracked, lacks ties

THE WARDINGTON COPY. This edition contains the first major revisions of the King James version, standardising the use of italics, and altering several readings. Herbert notes that "this remained the standard text until the publication of Dr Paris' Cambridge edition of 1762".

The Geometrical Compartment Binder was active in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. "The work of this binder was first noted by G.D. Hobson, although I must take some blame for this rather cumbersome name... This craftsman's passion [is] for geometrical passions based on the French fanfare style, his favourite element being the square with a semicircle in the centre of each side" (Nixon).

REFERENCES: Herbert 520; Griffiths 1638:2; STC 2331, 16410 (BCP), 2682 (Psalms); ESTC S123371, S902, S122380; for the binding: Nixon, Broxbourne Library, 82; Foot, “Henry Davis Gift” II, 146 and 147; Maggs catalogue 1075, nos. 114 and 115

PROVENANCE: Edmund Barrow Evans, ownership inscription; Henry Martin Gibbs, armorial bookplate dated 1891; Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease, 2nd Baron Wardington (1924–2005), bookplate, sale in these rooms 12 July 2006, lot 82