[MARITIME BINDING] Lives of Eminent Anglo-Saxons; illustrating the dawn of Christianity and civilization in Great Britain. Part I [& II].

A$880 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Limited edition

London : The Religious Tract Society, [circa 1850]. Two volumes in one, duodecimo (145 x 95 mm), in a special ship s binding of gilt-ruled calf, the upper board with gilt-stamped pictorial device and below the ship s name S.S. William Denny , the spine in compartments with contrasting leather title piece lettered in gilt and with The Wm. Denny Library stamped in gilt at the foot; marbled edges; front pastedown with bookseller s ticket of W. Beal, Tinsmith and Bookseller, Wellesley-street East, Auckland ; pastedown and front free-endpaper with ownership inscriptions of T. Kane Decr 1870 and F. Cherry, Newton [Auckland] 339-1871 , pp 192; 192; rear pastedown with Cherry s manuscript date of 5.12.71 , and the remnants of the binder s ticket, printed in red on white but of which only the following letters can be discerned: [????] ART / [BOOKBIND] ER / [????] LEY ; the boards are lightly rubbed and with some minor scuff marks, but the gilt is still bright; the binding is firm, and the contents clean. The cargo and passenger ship SS William Denny was wrecked off New Zealand s North Cape in March 1857, on a voyage from Auckland to Sydney. This beautiful little volume, in the ship s own attractive binding (frustratingly, we cannot identify the binder from his only partially legible ticket), was evidently salvaged from the wreck at the time; whether or not it is a unique survivor is not known. The book was later sold by William Beal, Auckland tinsmith (!) and bookseller, to Mr. T. Kan

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.