The Holy Bible [1882 George V. Jones specially bound Pictorial Family Bible and Brass Lectern]

Boston, Mass: George V. Jones, No. 123 Pearl St, 1882. Hardcover. Fine. Large thick quarto. Various paginations. Containing the Old and New Testaments (with both versions of the New Testament); the Apocrypha; a complete Concordance; 100,000 marginal references, etc. Illustrated with color lithographic plates and maps, steel-engraved and wood-engraved plates, and wood-engraved illustrations throughout the text. Bound in at the back are two double-sided color lithographic cardboard sleeves with mounting slots to accommodate 16 family portraits. A rare and beautifully preserved pictorial family bible bound in elaborate gilt-decorated paneled morocco with metal clasps.

The tail of spine and two raised bands are lightly rubbed, a bright, fine copy housed in the publisher's original cardboard box with a printed paper label. A few corners of the box are split, one side is detached, else very good. A binder's ticket on the back pastedown further identifies this edition as having been both published and bound by: "Geo. V. Jones & Co., booksellers and bookbinders" in Boston. The binding is signed with a small copyright date in gold ("copyrighted 1881"), and an advertisement printed on the verso of a leaf at the front makes it known that the Bible won the highest prize at an International Exposition in December, 1881: "... the designs and workmanship being of the very best." Laid-in is an eight-page publisher's catalog: "Announcement for 1883," so we think it safe to attribute a date of 1882 to this volume. The Bible is also remarkable for its many fine engraved and lithographic plates printed in multiple colors. All are bright, pristine impressions of high artistic accomplishment, printed on high quality thick paper sheets, with pristine tissue guards. The steel engravings are printed on uncoated sheets, and the wood-engraved plates are printed on lightly coated sheets.

The volume is accompanied by an equally fine brass lectern featuring open arabesque metal work on its four rectangular sides, the Last Supper depicted in relief on the front, and an adjustable top piece pierced with an open leaf pattern surrounding the JHS Christogram. A brass plate on the back is engraved: "Darovala M.V.B.B., A.D. 1925." *OCLC* locates only one copy of this Bible at the American Antiquarian Society, which they acquired from the Mark Craig Collection of signed Bookbindings.