[Fine Binding | Illuminated] The Rosary in Rhyme

Tabb, John B. The Rosary in Rhyme. [Cambridge] Small & Maynard Co., 1904. Limited to 350 copies on Van Gelder handmade paper. Initials and 15 full page illustrations in the style of stained glass windows by Thomas Meteyard. The fifteen illustrations correspond with fifteen short poems commemorating the the mysteries of the rosary. Each of the illustrations has been stunningly hand-colored, and though the work is unsigned, it is very much in the style of illumination work being performed by the Craftsman's Guild in Boston during this period.

Bound in full grained blue-green morocco, with gilt cross decoration (the same tool also present on the publisher's binding) to covers, five bands to spine with title in second compartment. Doublures feature wide blue-green turn-ins with an inlaid panel of brown, tooled with curving gilt vines and leaves, terminating in flowers. A skilled binding, and based on the cover decoration and illumination, likely commissioned by the publisher. Top edge gilt. Silk flyleaves (see note below). Measures approx. 5.25" x 6.5". Rubbing to edges and joints, fading to boards and spine, staining to covers. Silk endpapers have become unattached to flyleaves (still connected at spine).