1859 Rare Book with Clasp - Church Services, Church Services and New Testament
An exceptionally attractive small-format Victorian Church Services volume, combining the Book of Common Prayer, Psalter, New Testament and metrical Psalms in a richly decorated contemporary leather binding with gilt brass furniture, clasp and all edges gilt.
Author: Church of England; with the metrical Psalms by Nicholas Brady and Nahum Tate.
Title: Church Services, comprising The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church; the Psalter or Psalms of David; The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and A New Version of the Church Services.
Publisher: London: G. E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty; the Book of Common Prayer sold by Charles Courtier and Sons, 40 Fleet Street, London, 1859–1860.
Edition: Victorian Church Services volume, with the Book of Common Prayer and Brady and Tate Psalms dated 1859, and the New Testament dated 1860.
Language: English.
Pages: Unpaginated.
Size: 5 x 3 inches.
Binding: Very good and highly decorative contemporary full brown leather binding over substantial boards, elaborately blind-stamped with large scrolling floral designs to both covers. The boards are further embellished with ornate gilt-brass corner and edge furniture and retain the substantial hinged brass fore-edge clasp. Spine with raised bands, decorative blind tooling and gilt title Church Services. Attractive gilt-decorated inner borders and all edges gilt. Light rubbing and age wear, principally at the spine ends and extremities, entirely consistent with age, as shown. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content, tight, complete and well preserved, with light age toning and scattered foxing, mainly to the preliminary leaves, as shown. The individual sections retain their respective title pages, including the Book of Common Prayer dated 1859, the New Testament dated 1860, and Brady and Tate’s metrical Psalms dated 1859.
Estimate: USD 350–500.
The book:
This handsome Victorian devotional volume brings together the principal texts of Anglican worship in an unusually elaborate portable format. It opens with The Book of Common Prayer, including the Psalter, followed by the New Testament and Brady and Tate’s metrical version of the Psalms. The respective title pages date the constituent parts to 1859 and 1860, during the reign of Queen Victoria, and identify G. E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode in their official capacity as Printers to the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty.
The principal attraction of the volume is its remarkable contemporary binding. The deeply impressed floral ornament, extensive gilt-brass corner furniture, substantial clasp and gilt edges transform what was intended as a practical book of worship into an accomplished example of Victorian decorative bookbinding. Despite its compact 5-inch format, it has considerable visual presence and would appeal equally to collectors of fine bindings, Victorian devotional books and Anglican liturgical material.
The authors:
The Book of Common Prayer developed from the English Reformation and became the central liturgical text of the Church of England, shaping Anglican worship and the English language for centuries. The version represented here reflects the nineteenth-century use of the United Church of England and Ireland.
Nicholas Brady (1659–1726) and Nahum Tate (1652–1715) produced their influential metrical New Version of the Psalms of David at the end of the seventeenth century. Designed for congregational singing, their Psalms remained widely used in Anglican churches well into the Victorian period, making their inclusion here a natural complement to the Prayer Book and New Testament.