"HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS IN THREE BOOKS.
I. Collected from the SCRIPTURES.
II. Composed on DIVINE SUBJECTS.
III. Prepared for the LORD'S SUPPER."
The binding on the copy of this Hymnal, which lies before us, might readily be attributed to an English binder, and the dark crimson morocco in which it is encased was undoubtedly an imported article, as also must have been the binder's tools employed in its decoration. Its native workmanship is, however, established by the inscription upon the fly leaf, which certifies that this was "Hannah Boudinot's book, bound and gilt at Trenton, 1785".
It is to be regretted that the artisan who, at this early period, was able to produce a binding of so creditable a character, remains unknown. He left his work unsigned, but this is as we might expect, for the bibliopegists of all times have been a modest race of men, quite content apparently to quietly pursue their calling and " wake up each morning to still find themselves obscure." The damask, velvet, and pigskin bindings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were frequently stamped with the initials or trademarks of the binder or gilder, but the names which either rightfully or wrongfully we have connected with the several predominant styles of book-cover decoration, which have been pronounced " as incapable of further development or of finer expression," and of which we never weary, are seldom found upon the bindings attributed to these masters ; and in order to decipher the minute characters in which the signature of the modern bibliopegist is all but concealed, at the foot of the inside cover, one almost requires the use of a magnifying-glass. In the same class and order of merit as the binding upon Hannah Boudinot's Hymn Book, but of a different style of decoration, is the one upon a thick paper copy of the "Federalist" * in the Lenox Library, printed and bound, as the ticket within it attests, at Franklin's Head, 41 Hanover Square,New York. It is in sprinkled calf, full gilt, as a cataloguer would describe it, the sides ornamented with a scroll border and an oval centre-piece, in the " Etruscan " style, so-called, a style common to the architecture, the silverware, and the furniture of the period, as well as to the exterior decoration of the covers of books which inherited its graceful lines, festoons and scrolls from the Greek and should be recognized as classical, but is generally known to us only by the much used and abused term Colonial.
* The Federalist : A collection of Essays written in favour of the New Constitution. 2 vols. Printed and Sold by J. & A. M'Lean, No. 41 Hanover-Square, 1788.
We find similar tools employed and a like design upon the cover of a copy of the American edition of Brown's Illustrated Family Bible,* bound in red morocco, which material alone, elevates it to higher rank as a binding, than the "Federalist" bound in calf. The back of this cumbersome elephant folio Bible, is panelled in blue and yellow leathers, separated by bands of green, the whole richly tooled in gold " a petits fers". The upper panel bears the title of the book, the lower one, the name of the first owner, Mary Ellis, 1792, whose signature also appears upon the fly leaf, under date of August 12,1793. This mosaic binding, for such it is, was produced by Thomas Allen, book-seller, stationer and printer, as he is described in the New York Directory for the same year, and has his ticket on the inside of the front cover:
*THE SELF-INTERPRETING BIBLE. New York, Printed for T. Allen, 12 Queen Street, 1792. Illustrated with copperplate engravings by Tiebout and others.
No. 12, Queen Street."
Thomas Greenleaf's semi-weekly paper, " The New York Journal & Patriotic Register" contains in the number for June 18, 1790, an announcement of this forthcoming publication which reads in part as follows :
" Brown's Self-interpreting Folio Family Bible, embellished with a variety of elegant Copper-Plates, Being a genuine American Edition, the largest and cheapest ever proposed to be printed in the United States.
" Proposals for printing by Subscription By Hodge, Allen & Campbell, of N. Y. The Holy Bible containing The Old and New Testaments with the Book of the Apocrypha, illustrated with notes, &c. By John Brown, D.D., Late Minister of the Gospel at Haddington, . . . will be printed in large folio on fine paper, American manufacture, and on excellent, large and new type cast on purpose for this work.
"It will be completed in forty numbers, one every two weeks, price One Quarter of a Dollar or Twenty-five Cents."
Continued on this page