1674 Octavo The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety – English Restoration Binding
Key Features
Size: Octavo (7.25” x 4.625”)
Author: Richard Allestree
Font: Single Column Roman
Binding: Contemporary Red Goatskin
Printer: R. Norton for Robert Pawlett
SKU: Q48
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.