Lewis – Life and Sufferings of John Wiclif – Clarendon Press, 1820 – Rodwell Oxford Binding – J. R. Abbey Copy

LEWIS, John. The History of the Life and Sufferings of the Reverend and Learned John Wiclif, D.D.; together with a Collection of Papers and Records relating to the said History. A new edition, corrected and enlarged by the author. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1820. Octavo.

A particularly handsome Oxford copy of John Lewis's important early biography of the theologian and religious reformer John Wiclif, bound in richly decorated straight-grain morocco by the comparatively little-recorded Oxford binder J. Rodwell of St. Clement's.

The dark blue morocco binding is extensively decorated in gilt and blind, with broad geometric and foliate borders to both boards, a blind-tooled central panel, richly gilt spine compartments and gilt turn-ins. The volume retains Rodwell's printed binder's ticket. Rodwell bindings are uncommon, with relatively few examples appearing in institutional and auction records. 

Provenance

From the celebrated library of Major John Roland Abbey (1898–1969), with his engraved armorial bookplate to the front pastedown. Contemporary ownership inscription, “Rob.t Marriott 1821,” to the title page.

This exact copy was offered by Maggs Bros. in its 1981 catalogue Provincial Bookbinding in Great Britain: Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century, catalogue 1014, item 62. The corresponding pencilled notation “62/1014” remains on the front flyleaf. A second notation, “288/1075,” appears to record a subsequent catalogue appearance, although that entry has not been traced.

Condition

Binding rubbed and worn at the joints, board edges, corners and spine ends, with areas of surface loss, particularly along the outer edges; the elaborate gilt decoration nevertheless remains striking and substantially intact. A short crack is present at the head of the front joint, but both boards remain firmly attached.  Front endpapers bright; rear endpapers lightly marked. Scattered foxing and spotting internally, heavier around the portrait frontispiece, title page and adjoining leaves. Ownership inscription to title and pencilled annotations to the front flyleaf, as described. All edges gilt; red endpapers.

Bibliographic note

8vo (approximately 22 cm). Engraved portrait frontispiece of John Wiclif. xxxii, 389, [11] pp. 

References

Maggs Bros., Provincial Bookbinding in Great Britain: Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century, catalogue 1014 (London, 1981), item 62.

Charles Ramsden, Bookbinders of the United Kingdom (Outside London), 1780–1840 (1954), p. 143.