The Holy Bible, containing the Old Testament and the New:
HOLY BIBLE.
Oxford: Printed by John Baskett, printer to the King's most Excellent Majesty, for Great Britain; and to the University. 1717.
Folio. 509x310mm. Unpaginated. [ff. 648]. Title page printed in red and black with an engraved view of the Clarendon Building in Oxford by M. dr Gucht. Additional engraved title page by Du-Bose showing Moses writing the first verse of the Book of Genesis. Separate New Testament title page dated 1716 with an engraving of the Annunciation. Preliminary matter includes Table of Lessons and Kalendar printed in red and black. Borders ruled in red throughout. Extensively illustrated with many engravings after paintings and drawings by Thornhill, Cheron and Laguerre. Engraved head and tailpieces and historiated initials. Internally in excellent condition with a small hole in L4 with loss of two letters, tear to bottom corner of 3S6, closed tears to blank margins of [G4], [K5] and [S1] not affecting text and a few old neat marginal repairs.
Superbly bound in contemporary panelled tan calf, upper and lower boards (10mm thick) with lavishly decorated gilt tooled borders, inner panel framing a laurel wreath in gilt. Spine with seven raised bands and eight compartments richly decorated in gilt using an wide array of ornaments including flower and leaf motifs, strapwork, vines, arabesques, panels and dots. Doublures richly decorated in gilt using the same tool as the border to one of the panels on the boards. Marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Front pastedown has the armorial bookplate of Thomas Estcourt, the Estcourts being a Gloucestershire political and land-owning family. The quality, inventiveness, variety of tools and the distinctive strapwork on the spine leads us to attribute the work to the Oxford binder Richard Sedgley or, perhaps more probably given that Richard died in 1719, his son Thomas.
A bravura display and a fitting binding for Baskett's gorgeous work, justly regarded as the finest English printed Bible. Pedants dwell on the misprints sprinkled throughout the text, the best known of which, in the Parable of the Vineyard gives this edition its Vinegary nickname. And it is, of course, obligatory to throw in the hoary old pun on the printer's name and refer to a "Baskett-ful of Errors" but when a book is as beautifully printed, bound and decorated as this, we can surely overlook the occasional slip.
Folio. 509x310mm. Unpaginated. [ff. 648]. Title page printed in red and black with an engraved view of the Clarendon Building in Oxford by M. dr Gucht. Additional engraved title page by Du-Bose showing Moses writing the first verse of the Book of Genesis. Separate New Testament title page dated 1716 with an engraving of the Annunciation. Preliminary matter includes Table of Lessons and Kalendar printed in red and black. Borders ruled in red throughout. Extensively illustrated with many engravings after paintings and drawings by Thornhill, Cheron and Laguerre. Engraved head and tailpieces and historiated initials. Internally in excellent condition with a small hole in L4 with loss of two letters, tear to bottom corner of 3S6, closed tears to blank margins of [G4], [K5] and [S1] not affecting text and a few old neat marginal repairs.
Superbly bound in contemporary panelled tan calf, upper and lower boards (10mm thick) with lavishly decorated gilt tooled borders, inner panel framing a laurel wreath in gilt. Spine with seven raised bands and eight compartments richly decorated in gilt using an wide array of ornaments including flower and leaf motifs, strapwork, vines, arabesques, panels and dots. Doublures richly decorated in gilt using the same tool as the border to one of the panels on the boards. Marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Front pastedown has the armorial bookplate of Thomas Estcourt, the Estcourts being a Gloucestershire political and land-owning family. The quality, inventiveness, variety of tools and the distinctive strapwork on the spine leads us to attribute the work to the Oxford binder Richard Sedgley or, perhaps more probably given that Richard died in 1719, his son Thomas.
A bravura display and a fitting binding for Baskett's gorgeous work, justly regarded as the finest English printed Bible. Pedants dwell on the misprints sprinkled throughout the text, the best known of which, in the Parable of the Vineyard gives this edition its Vinegary nickname. And it is, of course, obligatory to throw in the hoary old pun on the printer's name and refer to a "Baskett-ful of Errors" but when a book is as beautifully printed, bound and decorated as this, we can surely overlook the occasional slip.