Mar 26, 2009 - Sale 2174

Sale 2174 - Lot 73

Price Realized: $ 2,640
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
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 (17 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches), contemporary gilt-tooled calf, joints rubbed, scuffed, worn at extremities; hinges split, intermittent foxing and browning, localized staining from small pressed flowers (some still present); faint marginal dampstaining on a few pages; ornamental signature of Eliza Bancker and manuscript family register between the Apocrypha and New Testament, family register leaf trimmed. With subscriber leaf. Philadelphia: "Printed for John Thompson & Abraham Small, from the hot press of John Thompson," [1796]-1798
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

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 register gives births, marriages, and deaths through 1815 in the family of John Bancker (1738-1815), a Revolutionary War soldier who was born in Albany, NY, and died in Belleville, NJ.