Royal Binding.- Book of Common Prayer (The), engraved title, wood engraved initials, head- and tail-pieces, ruled in red throughout, additional engraved portrait of King Charles II mounted on thin card and loosely inserted, b4 with small marginal loss, A3 with loss to corners, N3 with tiny rust-hole affecting odd letter, 2F3 with tear into text and no loss, occasional light soiling, early ink signature of Richard Colebrand to title and A1, contemporary red morocco by ?Samuel Mearne, central gilt panels with cypher of King Charles II to corners comprising two 'C's back-to-back between two palm leaves and surmounted by a crown, richly gilt spine, a little rubbed, bumping to corners and extremities, lacking ties, folio, by His Ma:ties Printers, 1669.

⁂ Provenance: Ink signature of Richard Colebrand (1614-74) dated 1673, a Chaplain to King Charles II.

A handsome binding from the workshop of ?Samuel Mearne, who supplied "a number of other Bibles and Prayer Books for use in the Royal chapels ... [in 1669] Mearne submitted a bill for the following: ... one Common Prayer of large Dutch paper similarly bound [in red turkey] for the Sub-Dean at £5, [and] four similar Common Prayers, also at £5 each, for the altar." (Howard M Nixon, English Restoration Bookbindings, p.18). It is likely that this is one of the bindings for which Mearne was charging £5.