“THE HIGHEST POINT IN ENGLISH BIBLE PRINTING”: BASKERVILLE’S MASTERPIECE, HIS MAGNIFICENT 1763 LARGE FOLIO BIBLE, SPLENDIDLY BOUND

(BIBLE). The Holy Bible, Containing the Old Testament and the New. Cambridge: John Baskerville, 1763. Large, thick folio (13 by 20 inches), period-style full red morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and covers, raised bands, contemporary marbled endpapers.    $18,000.

First Baskerville edition, one of only 1250 copies of the celebrated printer’s “most ambitious undertaking… widely acclaimed as his masterpiece,” exquisitely bound in period-style morocco-gilt.

“This edition ‘has always been regarded as Baskerville’s magnum opus and is his most magnificent as well as his most characteristic specimen’” (Herbert 1146). “His most ambitious undertaking… widely acclaimed as his masterpiece” (Art of the Printed Book, 26). “Aesthetically, the highest point in English Bible printing so far was John Baskerville’s folio printed at Cambridge in 1763… The Bible uses his types, paper and ink, and shows his characteristic ‘machine-made’ finish: very smooth and even in color and impression, with glossy black ink on smooth paper. The design is traditional, but the quality of material and workmanship is so high, and the conventions are so delicately modified and consistently applied that the result is extremely impressive” (Cambridge History of the Bible, 464). Beautifully printed in two columns of large type. With Apocrypha. With subscribers’ list in first state (ending with Mr. Winwood). Gaskell 26. Darlow & Moule 857. Herbert 1146. Huntington Library, Great Books in Great Editions 6. Eighteen entries on the verso of the title page in two fine contemporary and early hands reveal that this Bible once belonged to Henry Fane (1703-77), member of Parliament for Lyme Regis 1757-77. His Wormsley Park, Oxfordshire house and estate were bought by Paul Getty II in 1986. The first ten entries are in Henry Fane’s own hand, as he writes “The 17 July 1735 I married Miss Charlotte Rowe—who died the 29th September 1739.” The succeeding eight entries in a different hand continue listing births, marriages and deaths in the family, with the final date of 1787.

Occasional, mostly very faint, scattered spotting or dust soiling. A few minor creases; 8Lii repaired along lower margin. A sumptuously bound copy of this beautifully printed, scarce Bible, with distinguished provenance.