Book of Common Prayer [BCP]
Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book. William Pickering [and the Chiswick Press], 1853. 8vo, full plum morocco, boards with blind panelling, upper board lettered directly in gilt, spine lettered directly in gilt and panelled in blind in compartments, chocolate endpapers, all edges gilt over red; title printed in red and black, port. frontis., decorative borders by Mary Byfield after Durer, Holbein, Tory and others.
Byfield was a life-long employee of the Chiswick Press and this Pickering edition of Elizabeth's prayer book is widely considered her masterpiece. It weaves old and new designs into a harmonious and attractive setting for the Caslon type, which simultaneously illuminates and contextualises the words it encloses.
With the Folio Society edition of the same (2013 reprint of the 2004 first Folio edition). 8vo, quarter bound in green leather gilt over marbled boards, green endpapers, top edges gilt, others green, green marker, in slipcase decorated in gilt; illustrated after the Pickering edition. [2]