1674 Octavo The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety – English Restoration Binding

The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. Or an impartial survey of the ruines of Christian Religion. Undermin’d by Unchristian Practice. Written by the Author of The Whole Duty of Man.

Description

A devotional work first published in 1667, a lovely example of a Restoration binding by the Queen’s Binder B. Initial imprimatur leaf. Engraved title vignette of the burning of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1666. Text in single column font with headlines and good margins. Includes ad leaf at rear.

Pagination

[20], 452 (including final leaf of ads), [4]. Lacks the two engraved plates at the front.

Collation

[unsigned]^4, A-Z^8, Aa-Ff^8, [unsigned]^2.

Binding

Contemporary red morocco lavishly gilt-tooled with to all-over pattern of drawer-handle tools, floral motifs, and pointelle detailing within a border of including a floral roll. All edges gilt. Inner dentelles. Marbled endpapers.

Condition

Light stain to lower margin of title page; A7 small hole with loss of a couple of letters; pages are bright and clean throughout; hinges and spine ends lightly chipped and rubbed; black detailing lightly faded on top board.  

Note

Devotional works by Richard Allestree were frequently bound in this style of ‘fanfare’ binding, which was popularized by the seventeenth-century queens Mary of Modena and Catherine of Braganza and the fashions that accompanied them from southern Europe. This has the characteristic tools of such a binding, including draw handles and tulips, and features black and brown paint. Although hurried execution has caused some of the dark paint to smudge, it is nonetheless a splendid example from the Golden Age of English Bookbinding.

Scarcity

USTC shows thirteen copies with only two in North America.

References

USTC 3091907; Wing A1102; Nixon, English Restoration Bookbindings 67,68.