ANCIENT MYSTERIES DESCRIBED, Especially the English miracle plays, founded on the Apocryphal New Testament story, . including notices of ecclesiastical shows, the festivals of fools and asses, the English boy-bishop, the descent into hell, the Lord Mayor's show, the Guildhall giants, Christmas carols, &c.

Descripción

8vo, (225x145mm), [2],x,[2]13-299p, some slight spotting, 13 engraved illustrations (one large folding) and including four woodcuts from earlier Christmas Carol sheets. Original printed moire-pattern dark tan cloth, corners very worn and edges rubbed. Later rebacked and with new endleaves. Dating editions of Hone's Ancient Mysteries is, like battling at cricket: 'a simple art fraught with difficulty.' The title page of this edition carries the date, 1823, of the first edition; however, it is printed entirely in black as opposed to red and black and there is no imprint of the printer, John M'Creery, on the recto of leaf 2O4, indeed the sections are not lettered at all, but are numbered. We suspect that this edition was printed in the early to mid 1830s. The binding of this book is occasionally claimed as the earliest dated cloth binding and although the cloth of this copy carries the full title page printed on the front cover (within an ornamental frame) and is clearly dated 1823 it is unlikely that this binding was actually produced before the early 1830s. The cloth has a moire-pattern which it is generally accepted was not in use until that time, the earliest bookcloths being unpatterned. Eric Quayle has suggested that this may be a 'remainder' binding put on the book in the early 1830s. Although any claim the book may have to the most significant place in the history of cloth binding is open to dispute, nonetheless it is worthy of note if only on account of its manner of presentation and use of binding material. N° de ref. del artículo 19509

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