ILLUSTRATIONS OF BAPTISMAL FONTS

F.A. Paley, M.A. Honorary Secretary of the Cambridge Camden Society (Introduction by)

Edité par John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, London, 1844

A propos de cet article

First impression of the true first edition. With a thirty-two numbered page introduction by F. A. Paley. Illustrated with one hundred and twenty four full-page black and white steel engraved plates throughout - with a page of detailed explanatory text opposite each individual illustration; the text and the illustration pages are blank on verso. Please note that the two-page introduction (pages 7-8) by the author has been mis-bound and is bound in to the fore of the book before the title-page, and the advertisement is bound in where the introduction should be. (Binding production errors are not an uncommon occurrence with antiquarian books where printers have mis-bound the book). Very good in navy-blue cloth-covered boards with gilt titles and double gilt borders to spine and double blind borders to front and rear boards. Dark blue-coloured front and rear free endpapers and pastedowns. Tiny, contemporaneous booksellers stamp to bottom edge of front pastedown: 'Galloway & Porter, New & Secondhand Booksellers, 30 Sydney Street, Cambridge.' Unobtrusive surface scuff to top of front free endpaper where an owner's address label has been removed. Boards slightly marked and rubbed. Corners bumped. A couple of lower page corners lightly creased to the fore. No inscriptions. No foxing. Text and illustrations clean. Spine tight. 226mm x 148mm. Unpaginated. Thirty-two numbered pages introduction to the fore by F. A. Paley plus a chronological index and an alphabetical to the front. ***Book arranged in the following illustrated sections: Norman Fonts; Early English Fonts; Decorated Fonts; Perpendicular Fonts. ***'Perhaps there is no subject in the whole range of Ecclesiastical Antiquities so difficult to arrange and discuss in all its departments, historical, architectural, and decorative, as that of Baptismal Fonts. But a less comprehensive method must be adopted, when the space alloted for the purposes, as in the present instance, is of necessity limited, and the mode of treatment therefore confined to general statements and investigations of leading principles. For it is a hopeless task to reduce to a compass of a brief introduction the numerous bearings which any one of these heads will be found to assume, or to give a complete summary of the varied information which has already been put forth in books on a topic of such well-known antiquarian interest. It is scarcely necessary to add that the comparatively small number of examples which our series affords for the illustration of the following remarks, renders it impossible to represent every peculiarity in the forms and devises of Ancient Fonts. Many examples indeed have been cited, and still more have been examined, besides those contained in the present work, yet how small a part of a boundless field has been laid open to view, and will be felt by every one who has been engaged in the same understanding. For these reasons we shall not attempt to trace the history and origin of Fonts, but shall refer our readers to the works of Gough, Robinson, Bingham, Wheatley, Fosbrooke, and the writers in the Archaeologia, in which two papers may be particularly mentioned, one by Mr. Carte, in vol. x. p. 209; and one by the Rev. Samuel Denne, vol xi. p. 108. ---We shall devote the following remarks principally to the architectural view of the subject; ---In truth, from the great antiquity, the obscure and symbolical character of the earlier examples, the progressive changes in shape and detail, and, above all, from the boundless variety of design, for which the Baptismal Fonts of this country are remarkable.' (Quote from the introduction by F. A. Paley). ***First impression of the true first edition in its original cloth-covered boards with all plates present, as called for. Very hard to find in nice complete clean condition. Of interest to historians and collectors. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging.

N° de réf. du vendeur 3696

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: ILLUSTRATIONS OF BAPTISMAL FONTS
• Éditeur: John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, London
• Date de parution: 1844
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: First Edition
• Impression: First Impression
• État de l'article: Very Good
• État de la jaquette: No Jacket, as Issued
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Esoteric & Religious Beliefs
  • First Editions
  • Illustrated