The Book of Common Prayer; The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacrements, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church
Oxford: John Baskett, 1739. Leather bound. Very Rare 18th Century Edition of the Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacrements, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church.
Beautifully bound in contemporary full red morocco gilt.
The volume’s contemporary morocco binding, in the “Harleian” style, bears on-laid black Morocco centerpieces outlined with gilt sun rays and gilt-stamped with the initials “JHS” (Jesus Hominum Salvator).
Engraved frontispiece portrait of George II, additional engraved title-page after John Sturt for Richard Ware (“at ye Bible & Sun in Amen Corner”).
Bound with:
– The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments – Oxford: John Baskett, 1738.
Additional engraved half-title, 3 folding maps and 132 illustrations on 33 leaves by after John Sturt.
– The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ… London: John Baskett, 1738.
Engraved folding maps and 72 illustrations on 18 leaves after John Sturt.
– A Brief Concordance or Table to the Bible… carefully Perused and Enlarged by John Downame, B.D. London: R. Ware, 1739.
A handsome volume aptly augmented by John Sturt’s (1658-1730) illustrations probably based on his plates for his edition of Samuel Wesley’s versifications of the Bible (Old Testament, 1704 and New Testament, 1715).
In good period condition with some damage to the binding in places and at the corners.
Some wear and tear in line with the age of the book can be found on some pages such as light browning or spotting, small folds or tears may be found on a couple of page.
John Sturt the man behind the book
John Sturt (1658 – 1730) was an English engraver, he engraved the most important of his books on calligraphy. He is popularly known as an illustrator of The Pilgrim’s Progress.
He was born in London on 6 April 1658, and at the age of seventeen was apprenticed to Robert White, in whose manner he engraved a number of small portraits as frontispieces to books. Sturt at one time kept a drawing school in St. Paul’s churchyard in partnership with Bernard Lens II. He died in London, poor, in 1730. Sturt executed the illustrations to many of the religious and artistic publications of the time.
He also engraved the Genealogy of George I, in two sheets,1714; Chronological Tables of Europe, 1726; and a plate of the Seven Bishops, from a calligraphic drawing by Thomas Rodway. Sturt was the inventor of the class of prints known as “medleys”, the first of which he published in 1706. His last employment was upon the plates to James Anderson’s Selectus Diplomatum et Numismatum Thesaurus.
In association with John Ayres, Sturt engraved the writing-master’s books on calligraphy. He engraved the Lord’s Prayer within the space of a silver halfpenny, the Creed in that of a silver penny, and an elegy on Queen Mary so small that it could be inserted in a finger-ring. Sturt’s most spectacular production of this kind was the Book of Common Prayer, executed on 188 silver plates, all adorned with borders and vignettes, the frontispiece being a portrait of George I, on which were inscribed, in characters legible only with a magnifying glass, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Commandments, the prayer for the royal family, and the twenty-first psalm. This was published in 1717, and in 1721 he engraved, in a similar manner, the Orthodox Communicant. Good. Item #15
Price: $4,500.00