Bookbinding, red morocco by Queens' Binder A, London, 1677

Queens’ Binder A. Officium Eucharisticum. A Preparatory Service, London, 1677 Queens’ Binder A. Officium Eucharisticum. A Preparatory Service, to A Devout and Worthy Reception of the Lords Supper, 3rd edition, revised and enlarged, London: Printed for Christopher Wilkinson, 1677, title page with signature excised from upper blank margin (just clipping border), lightly toned with occasional marks, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, bookseller's ticket on front pastedown, contemporary red morocco by Queens' Binder A, covers with gilt dotted roll and fillet border, all-over gilt design of drawer-handle tools, three dots, and dotted-line four-petalled and eight-petalled flower tools, spine compartments gilt-panelled with dotted-line eight-petalled flower tool in centre, 8vo (sheet size 15.5 x 8.5 cm) QTY: (1) NOTE: Typical of the work of Queens' Binder A, with distinctive tools such as the four-petalled flower tool which has slightly elongated, rather than circular, petals.

Furthermore, the all-over drawer-handle design is typical of octavo volumes from Binder A's workshop, as is the dotted-line eight-petalled flower tool. It seems probable from Howard Nixon's research that Queens' Binder A is William Nott. Nott was an important figure in the book trade, as a bookseller, stationer and publisher, as well as binder. Samuel Pepys called him 'the famous bookbinder' and visited his workshop in 1668: 'I did take occasion for curiosity to bespeak a book to be bound, only that I might have one of his binding'. (Howard Nixon, Five Centruies of English Bookbinding, 1979).