THE ROYAL FAMILY PRAYER-BOOK, Containing the Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments; with the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England; Together with Psalms, Companion to the Altar, And all the Service complete.

Third edition. Superbly bound in contemporary red morocco with central black and red onlays decorated with gilt cherubim and bearing the initials "J H S", contained within a gilt sunburst. The boards with elaborate gilt decorated borders of floral swags and birds. The spine with five raised bands, the compartments decorated in gilt, four with a device depicting a regency lady sitting under an exotic tree with a bird perched on her outstretched hand, the others with a decorative lozenge containing a cornucopia. Gilt dentelles. All edges gilt. Attractive pastel red and green marbled endpapers. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece and ten further fine engraved plates. A lovely near fine copy, the binding square and firm with a little rubbing to the boards and minor bumping to the corners. The contents with a previous owner's ink inscription to the front endpaper ("S.H. Knapp / Bought at L. Dalby sale / March 1852") and some occasional spotting to page margins are otherwise in very good order and clean throughout.

A beautiful and finely executed eighteenth-century binding with an unusual decorative theme, with the exotic bird which sits in the woman's hand on the spine also hiding amongst the foliage on the boards.