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Lot 47
The Book of Common Prayer... -Book of Psalms. Cambridge: Baskerville, 1762. FINE CONTEMP. BINDING. 
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Estimate
$600 - 800
Price Realized
$762
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Lot Description
[BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, English]. The Book of Common Prayer... [Bound with:] STERNHOLD, Thomas and John HOPKINS. The Whole Book of Psalms, Collected into English Metre. Cambridge: J. Baskerville and B. Dod, 1762; Birmingham: John Baskerville, 1762. 

2 works in one volume, 12mo (167 x 100 mm). Title-page to the first work a cancellans, with lozenge and star printed slip pasted over price. (Some very minor spotting, but fresh overall.) IN A FINE CONTEMPORARY MOROCCO BINDING elegantly gilt, covers with dogtooth roll border surrounding wider floral rule border, spine in 6 compartments with 5 raised bands, compartments with repeating rows of a small tool creating a lattice effect within triple fillet border, raised bands gilt, board edges and turn-ins gilt, edges gilt (some slight rubbing, a few very tiny worm tracks on upper cover). Provenance: Hannah Hill (neat stencilled ownership inscription on front flyleaf: "Hanna Hill her Book January 5 1775").

Fourth Baskerville edition of the Book of Common Prayer, the only edition issued as a duodecimo. IN A VERY FINE CONTEMPORARY BINDING. After pursuing work as a writing master and cutting letters for gravestones, Baskerville began cutting type and printing books. Ever the innovator, he introduced improvements to printing presses, ink and paper treatment, and introduced new processes for cutting type and making paper. The overall effect of the "calligraphic type, the density of the ink, the excellence of the presswork, the smoothness and gloss of the paper -- all these elements work in harmony in a design" (DNB).

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