This beautiful antique edition of The Book of Common Prayer features a full leather binding with an unusual raised pattern and gilt tooling. There is a brass clasp and four raised bands to the spine. All edges are gilt and gauffered which is a wonderful feature in old books - Gauffering describes the act of applying a patterned decoration to the text block edges of a book. The book itself is undated but there is a written inscription inside dated 1850. So the book is early Victorian.
The book is in very good condition, with some rubbing and dulling to the gilt in places. The gilt text block edges are dulled and soiled. The corners show light wear and crushing, and there is some scuffing and minor chipping to the leather.
Inside, there are marbled endpapers and gilt inner dentelles. There is a written inscription on one of the preliminary pages and ink staining to the edge of the first several pages. The pages show varying degrees of age toning throughout, with sporadic foxing and occasional marking. There are pencilled markings in the margins in places.
Dimensions approximately 13.3cm x 8.8cm x 4.4cm.
The book will arrive hand wrapped in patterned wallpaper and ribbon.
I use a range of eco friendly, 100% recyclable jiffy bags and boxes, and whenever possible I use brown paper tape. The green bubble wrap is oxo-degradable and the clear bubble wrap is 100% recyclable. I also reuse boxes when I feel it's appropriate (if the boxes are sturdy enough).