[Harper Bible] The Illuminated Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments… embellished with sixteen hundred historical engravings…: With Over 1600 Engravings

The Illuminated Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments… embellished with sixteen hundred historical engravings…

New York: Harper and Brothers, 1846. Folio (13" x 10.25" x 3.5"). A well-preserved famous 1846 Harper Illuminated Bible. Beautiful gilt decorated front and back cover with over 1600 engravings throughout. Professionally re-backed and restored. Dated 1846 with, at foot of title, "entered ... in the year 1843 by Harper and Brothers". Frontispiece and illuminated title to each Testament. Table, Index and Concordance at the end. With Apocrypha, as issued.

The work was originally announced in 1843 and was issued in 54 numbers of 25ct each. J.A. Adams, the engraver, is credited with having taken the first electrotype in America from a woodcut. Many illustrations in this Bible are done this way. Artists were engaged for more than six years in the preparation of the designs and engravings included in this Bible, at a cost of over $20,000 - a small fortune in those days.

"This Harper publication was a remarkable production in its time and place, and retains its importance in the annals of American bookmaking. W.J. Linton, noted wood-engraver and author, knew 'no other book like this, so good, so perfect in all it undertakes.' The illustrations are like picturings of history, as are so many of the old European Biblical paintings and illustrations." (Hill's 1161)

With a set of unmarked family pages for recording births and deaths in middle of the Bible as well as an unmarked presentation page in the front. Engraved title and second printed title in red and black. Title to Apocrypha and New Testament printed in red and black as well. Text in triple column, the middle column a narrow one with notations and glosses. Hundreds of wood-engraved illustrations throughout.

Binding: Full black gilt-paneled morocco with elaborate gilt-tooled design around an elaborately tooled ruled border. Rebacked in black leather. Spine with four raised bands and gilt tooling to compartments and the words "Holy Bible" lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. Inner dentelles. Endpapers renewed.

Condition: Gilt remains bright. Pages with light browning and foxing, mostly to margins at the beginning and end, not unusual for wood-pulp paper. More prominent staining to the Tables in the back. Covers lightly rubbed. A very nice copy with an attractive original cover design.