?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
THE FIRST "HOT PRESS" BIBLE IN AMERICA (BIBLE IN ENGLISH.) The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments. Frontispiece. 2 volumes in 1. Large folio (15 3/4 x 10 inches), contemporary calf, worn, boards detached; first two leaves detached with moderate wear on fore-edge, intermittent foxing and browning, minimal dampstaining on top edge, first leaf of New Testament torn and stained with slight loss of text, lacking rear flyleaf; 2 pages of Murray family records facing and on verso of title page. With subscriber leaf, which lists the original owner. Philadelphia: Thompson & Small, "from the hot press of John Thompson," [1796]-1798
first hot-press edition of the bible printed in america, famous for its clarity of printing. The ink and type were heated and then seared onto the page. This edition also of note as one of the largest Bibles printed in America in its time, issued in 40 parts over two years. With a striking frontispiece engraved by Alexander Lawson. "A beautiful edition, and very well printed"--Sabin 5182. Evans 30066, 31808, and 33408; Hills 62. The family register listed the parents, siblings, and children of original owner Alexander Murray (1755-1821) of Philadelphia, with dates through 1870. Murray was an officer in the Continental Navy, and then reached the rank of commodore in the peacetime navy; he later commanded the Philadelphia Navy Yard. His son Magnus (1787-1838), listed here, was twice elected mayor of Pittsburgh.
