Fine English Restoration Binding, and a Trinity of Early Fem...

Hammer

£3,000

Fine English Restoration Binding, and a Trinity of Early Female Ownership. The Book of Common Prayer [...], Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David [...], London: Printed by the Assigns of John Bill, Thomas Newcomb, and Henry Hills, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty, 1680, [bound with] The Whole Book of Psalms: Collected into English Metre, London: Printed by J.C. for the Company of Stationers, 1676, separate titles: BCP black-ruled, Psalms with decorative woodcut border, BCP with the Royal Arms of Charles II to verso of [X4], each part printed in double-columns, signatures collating: A-U⁸, X⁴; A-E⁸, BCP: signature B4 defective with loss of text, signatures C4-D tatty with marginal chipped losses of letters, signatures E8 and O ditto, BCP and Psalms with some toning and occasional marginal stains in places, however mostly bright and fresh; 4ff of contemporary ink manuscript devout annotations to blanks (both recto and verso), by Frances Lloyd (the book's second owner, c. 1687), of apparent original thought and composition, including the Lord's Prayer, the creed, a short catechism, an exploration of the virtue of patience, etc., the text with further marginalia, - in the same lady's hand - but brief and mostly with some slight loss, the verso with a naive pen-and-ink sketch of a church and a pencil portrait, possibly of Thomas Roberts, 1749/50, above a marsupial, bound in contemporary red morocco, probably by Queen's Binder A (?possibly William Nott, from whom Pepys bought/commissioned a binding), richly gilt, the covers with a design of linked 'drawer handles' around floral bosses, tulips, other meandering scrolling foliage, and stars, many petals, volutes and scrolls painted black, within a blind-ruled fillet border, traces of the binder blind scoring the covers into quarters, flat spine of six compartments, alternately tooled and gilt with foliage and geometric motifs, divided by raised bands, marbled endpapers, lacking ffep, 8vo (18cm x 11.6cm). 

Provenance: 1) Mary Temple, presumably the original purchaser of the book &/or its binding; contemporary ink MS inscription of c. 1680 to recto blank; 2) 'Frances Lloyds (sic) Book given her by her worth friend ye Lady Temple 1687'; ink MS ditto; 3) 'Dorothy Myddelton her Book Left her from her aunt Frances Lloyd 1725'; ditto.

More Information

The binding is in very good, unrestored condition. The upper-cover joints are just beginning to split, though they're stable. The corners are gently bumped. A trifle of rubbing here and there, and some very light losses lost in the overall intricacy of the design. The bottom two spine compartments have former small wormholes, nothing too alarming. The boards very gently bowing. BCP: signature B4 defective with loss of text, signatures C4-D tatty with marginal chipped losses of letters, signatures E8 and O ditto. Both the BCP and the Psalms with some toning and occasional marginal stains in places, however mostly bright and fresh.