Christian Doctrines: from the words of Our Lord, of the Apostles and the Prophets [Illuminated texts.]

RARE EARLY WORK BY A LEADING ILLUMINATOR

IN ITS ORIGINAL EMBOSSED VELVET BINDING

first (sole) edition thus small 8vo. (17 x 111 cms.) 10 leaves of stiff card with rich colour and gilt printed miniatures and illuminations, 9 leaves printed double-sided and the first leaf (title page) printed on recto only, publisher's elaboratley embossed red velvet binding, marbled endpapers, edges gilt, short split at foot of rear joint, some minor marginal grubby marks and light fo.xing, else very good with the binding in an excellent state of preservation for something so vulnerable to wear. Rare.

Library Hub (formerly COPAC) and OCLC together locate only in BL, Cambridge, Oxford, Yale and Toronto. Some of the illuminations are signed with Francis Bedford's monogram.
Bedford (1815–1894), lithographer and photographer, the son of a respected London architect, regularly submitted "architectural studies to the annual exhibitions of the Royal Academy between 1833 and 1849. During this same period Bedford illustrated several publications concerned with the ecclesiastical architecture of London and York. It is thought that these brought him to the attention of the celebrated publishers and lithographers Day & Sons, whose innovative and costly production techniques placed them at the forefront of printing technology. Bedford's role at Day & Sons was to transfer the drawings and designs of artists intended as illustrations directly on to the lithographic stone in preparation for printing, a procedure that was both exacting and highly regarded. In this role he was responsible for the complex lithographs in colour and gold for both Digby Wyatt's Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century of 1851 and J. B. Waring's The Art Treasures of the United Kingdom of 1857. Working with a team of four assistants Bedford completed the hundred plates for Owen Jones's Grammar of Ornament (1856) in less than a year, and was credited by Jones for having taken personal responsibility for their perfection.
Given his training as an artist and his meticulous attention to detail, it is not surprising that Bedford turned to photography about 1853 .. [and] royal patronage helped to establish Bedford's status among the growing band of artist–photographers who were starting to define the professional future of the medium .. [so that he became] well established as a leading photographer and publisher of topographic and architectural views" [O.D.N.B.]