1875 Rare Glasgow Bible - The Pearl Reference Bible, Old and New Testaments

A superb and beautifully preserved Victorian family Bible in a particularly ornate Gothic-style leather binding. An appealing devotional volume with both an attractive presentation and a meaningful early provenance. Author: The Holy Bible. Title: The Pearl Reference Bible. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments. With The Psalms of David in Metre. Language: Text in English. Publisher: Glasgow, William Collins, Sons, & Company, [circa 1875]. Undated on the title page, but the licence leaf is dated 26 April 1875; a contemporary presentation inscription is dated March 12th, 1876. Size: 6" x 4". Pages: Unpaginated. Binding: Very good to near-fine, with a particularly attractive original full brown leather binding, elaborately blind-stamped and decorated in gilt. Front board with ornate architectural borders surrounding a central gilt-lettered panel, The Holy Bible. Decorated spine with raised bands, gilt lettering and floral ornaments. Decorative gilt turn-ins. Hinges fine and binding firm. All edges gilt. Protected in a removable mylar cover. Content: Very good. Generally clean, tight and complete, with some light scattered foxing and age toning, principally to the preliminary leaves, as shown. Contemporary presentation inscription on the second blank leaf: “To Agnes Dobie ... as a small token of respect for her as their Sabbath School Teacher, March 12th 1876.” Illustrations: Complete with 5 coloured maps and a plan of Jerusalem, six cartographic plates in total. The book: A beautiful and wonderfully compact Victorian edition of the King James Bible, issued by William Collins as part of their Pearl Reference Bible series. Despite measuring only six inches in height, the volume contains the complete Old and New Testaments together with the metrical Psalms and a useful suite of coloured biblical maps. The chief attraction of this copy is its handsome Victorian binding. The richly grained brown leather is extensively worked in blind and gilt, with Gothic-inspired panels, floral ornaments, raised spine bands, decorative gilt turn-ins and brilliant gilt page edges. An unusually attractive little Bible with considerable period character. The publisher: William Collins, Sons & Company was one of the great nineteenth-century Scottish publishing houses. Established in Glasgow, Collins became especially renowned for its production of Bibles, religious works, dictionaries and educational books. Its compact Bible editions combined highly legible small-format typography with often remarkably elaborate bindings, making them popular both for personal devotion and as presentation or gift books.