BASKETT, John. [Horace Walpole].
The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments; The Historical Part of the Holy Bible; The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Newly Translated out of the Original Tongues; The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Newly Translated out ot the Original Greek.
Oxford: Printed by John Baskett, Printer to the University, 1726.
$6,500.00
In Stock
Item Number: RRB-152906
Rare Extra-Illustrated Georgian Bible Printed by John Baskett; Elegantly Bound with the Book of Common Prayer and the Psalms and From the Library of Horace Walpole
Exquisitely bound Georgian Bible, printed by John Baskett and extra-illustrated with over two hundred engravings by T. Cole, bound together with the Book of Common Prayer and the metrical Psalms. Quarto, finely bound in in full contemporary polished calf with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling tot the spine, rebacked, gilt ruling, panelling and scrolling to the front and rear panels. The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, was printed at Oxford by John Baskett in 1726, the New Testament title dated 1725, its three parts and the index separately signed, this copy interleaved with the plates from the wholly engraved work The Historical Part of the Holy Bible, over two hundred scenes “curiously engrav’d by T. Cole” found in the quarto Bibles Baskett printed in this period. Bound in at the front is The Book of Common Prayer (Oxford, John Baskett, 1726), with an engraved frontispiece portrait of King George I by T. Cole, and bound in at the end is The Whole Book of Psalms Collected into English Metre (London, A. Wilde, 1725), lacking the final two leaves. The front pastedown bears the Jacobean armorial bookplate of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford. Horace Walpole, fourth Earl of Orford (1717-1797), was a writer, antiquarian, and politician whose The Castle of Otranto (1764) is widely credited as the founding work of the Gothic novel, establishing conventions of atmosphere and supernatural incident that would shape the genre for generations. The youngest son of Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, he devoted much of his life to Strawberry Hill, his Twickenham villa, where he established a private press that produced fine editions of his own work alongside that of contemporaries, making him a significant figure in the history of English printing as well as letters. Darlow and Moule 974; ESTC T90359, T130293, and T88802. A richly illustrated early Georgian Bible in a distinguished contemporary binding.
John Baskett (died 1742) was the King’s Printer, holding the exclusive royal patent to print Bibles and prayer books at Oxford and London in the early eighteenth century. His handsome folio and quarto Bibles were among the most elaborately produced of their day, though his shop was also famous for its errors, his 1717 folio becoming known as the “Vinegar Bible” for misprinting the “Parable of the Vineyard” as the “Parable of the Vinegar.” The engraver T. Cole supplied the suite of more than two hundred biblical scenes with which quarto Bibles of this period were frequently extra-illustrated, as here, and Cole also engraved the frontispiece portrait of King George I in the bound-in prayer book. Composite volumes of this kind, uniting the Holy Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, and the metrical Psalms in a single richly illustrated binding, were treasured family books in Georgian England.
The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments; The Historical Part of the Holy Bible; The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Newly Translated out of the Original Tongues; The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Newly Translated out ot the Original Greek.
$6,500.00
In Stock