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The Whole Booke of Davids Psalmes: both in prose and meeter: With apt notes to sing them withall.
Description
The Metrical Psalter with printed title page and decorative border (1643). The Psalms by Sternhold and Hopkins arranged in meter with the King James text presented in parallel columns.
Collation
A-Z8, Aa-Ee^8. Complete with title page.
Binding
Raised work or stump work type embroidery with figures to front and back, in coloured and metal threads. The front cover probably depicts Elijah fed by ravens with large holly stalks. The rear cover depicts a female figure, possibly hope or faith personified, in red banded dress, holding a flower aloft, flanked by a tulip and blue flower in large vases, and with a butterfly above. All edges gilt.
Condition
Rubbed with loss to some embroidered elements on both covers; more loss to spine at bands and lower compartment; joints cracked but holding; lacks front endpaper; text is clean and bright.
Provenance
Nineteenth century signature of “R.W. Ethelston” to front pastedown.
References
USTC 3044482; Wing B2395. USTC records nine surviving copies.
Note
These elaborate embroidered bindings were costly productions, often the work of skilled women in wealthy English households. Few examples have survived, particularly with the intricate raised embroidery found on this copy. A rare and beautiful example of seventeenth-century English needlework and bookbinding.