Philadelphia: Jesper Harding & Son, 1858.
Price: $600.00
Hardcover. Stated "Harding's Superfine Edition." Folio. Approximately 1,500 pages, plus 13 plates. Volume One of The Old Testament, Volume Two of The Old Testament, and The New Testament each have their own title page. Illustrated with six engraved plates, four color plates, and three engraved plates for family records which have been filled in by the family. Black leather boards both decoratively stamped in gilt, spine with raised bands making six compartments each stamped with a decorative gilt device save for the second from the top which has "Holy Bible" stamped in gilt, "Harding's Edition" and "25" stamped in gilt at the foot of the spine, boards with gilt decoration along the edges, gilt decorated turn-ins, and all page edges gilt. Boards and edges worn with a few scuff marks and a small stain on the front board but the gilt remains bright; front hinge repaired, scattered foxing throughout, the tissue guards covering the plates have partial tearing, and page 433-434 of The New Testament has a tear going through the text that has been repaired with tape but is still largely legible, over all very good.
This Bible belonged to Darius B. Smith and Eliza Maria Brown of Litchfield, Connecticut who were married on November 27, 1844. The records include their own birth dates, as well as their dates of death, showing that this Bible continued to be cherished by the family after the original owners passed away. Some of the deaths listed include notes, "Mrs. Darius B. Smith died Monday Dec. 22, 1913 at 8:30 PM. Age 88 years, 1 month, 10 days. Cause of death being old age & was only sick in bed a few days." Overall one marriage is listed, ten birth dates are listed, and 16 deaths.
"The text conformable to the Oxford Edition of the year of our Lord 1610, and the American Bible Society’s Original Standard Edition of 1816" (from the title page). Contains The Old Testament, The Apocrypha, Family Records, The New Testament, Concordance to the Old and New Testaments, and Psalms of David in Metre.
A nice example of a mid-19th century family Bible.
Item #617961
