The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New Newly Translated out of the Original Tongues And with the Former Translations diligently Compared and Revised. By his Majesties Special Command. Appointed to be read in churches.

London: Printed by Charles Bill and the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb deceas'd. 1701.


Folio. 503x320mm, pp. [14], 1456, [15pp Index, 1bl, 3pp. Table of Scripture-measures, weights and coins, 1bl]. Illustrated title page engraved by John Sturt and separate letterpress title page for the New Testament. Historiated initials. Ruled in red. Some slight marking and spotting and the occasional smudging of the red ink (not affecting text) but overall very good internally.
In a stunning contemporary mosaic binding by Thomas Sedgley. Red morocco decorated in a lavish mosaic style. Both covers densely decorated with red, green and black morocco onlays forming strapwork designs filled with a profusion of gilt tools and rolls, including leaf sprays, fleurons, seedheads, grotesque face tool, tulip, carnation, and sunflower tools and Tudor roses. Some of the leaf and petal motifs are further decorated with white and coloured onlays. The edges of the boards are decorated with a seedhead roll, turn-ins with pelmet roll and triple fillets. Spine with eight raised bands decorated in gilt with compartments decorated with onlays forming strapwork. Dutch gilt pink endpapers with foliate design, all edges gilt. Recent repairs to head and foot of spine and to joints. Wear to some of the gilt tooling but this does not affect the overall impact made by this stupendous binding.
That this is the work of the Oxford binder Thomas Sedgley (1684-1761), is clear from the "coloured interlacing strapwork and unusual leaf tools" noted by H.M.Nixon as common to a small group of mosaic bindings securely attributed to Sedgley (see number 59 in Five Centuries of English Bookbinding). Nixon includes among these mosaic bindings a spectacular 1715 Book of Common Prayer at All Souls which has much in common with this Bible and which is illustrated (plate vi) in John P. Chalmers's 1977 article for The Book Collector (pp.353-370).
Among the distinctive Sedgleian tools found on our binding is what Chalmers describes as "a pair of curled feathers" (see tool 3 in the illustrations to his essay). This is also found on a copy of Justinian's Institutiones sive Elementa which featured in Bayntun's e-catalogue 7 of 2014 (item 13). Other tools noted by Chalmers include the attractive "wheel of six leaves revolving around its centre" (19) as well as tulip, rose and other flower motifs. And the edges of the boards are decorated with a charming roll listed as number 25 by Chalmers who notes that this roll is also found on the work of Thomas's father Richard Sedgley.
But perhaps the most telling detail is the tiny gargoyle face (illustration number 45 in Chalmers's article). This 'grotesque' tool is hard to find and so maybe it is a private joke aimed at a colleague or a client. In any case, it adds an amusing touch to an otherwise serious and weighty piece of work.
Textually, this is an interesting edition, being the first English Bible to use the BC/AD dating system with the Nativity taken as year zero. It also contains a note on Jewish weights and measures compiled by Richard Cumberland (1631-1718), Bishop of Peterborough, whose essay on the subject, dedicated to his friend Samuel Pepys as President of the Royal Society, appeared in 1686. This is gorgeous book, beautifully printed, with a ground-breaking text and in a spectacular and spectacularly rare mosaic binding.