The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Church of England: Together with the Psalter, or Psalms, of David, Pointed as they are to be Sung or Said in Churches.

Thirty-two mo, not paginated, sig., A-2C8. Crimson full morocco; spine on five raised bands, elaborate floral tooling to spine within compartments; 'A T' [i.e. Ann Truman] in gilt within border of floral rolls to boards; gilt rolls to turn-ins and to edges of boards; all edges gilt; marbled end-papers. Ownership inscription 'Mrs Banks formerly Miss Ann Truman See Remarks on Mortality at the other end of this Book' to front free end-paper; 'Ethel Louise Maggs from my Aunt Mrs Rehnworth[?] Nov 10th 104' to facing end-paper; printed extract on mortality pasted to end, accompanied by leaf of manuscript commentary recalling a conversation between a Sophie Banks and Mrs Banks in 1834, who discussed the extract 'in a very clear audible manner', and then pasted it into this book before 'expiring a few hours afterwards'. Loss to head of spine, corners bumped, small areas of rubbing to boards. Contents clean a bright. A very good copy. An almost miniature authorised Book of Common Prayer which records a remarkable encounter between two women. Pasted to one of the final end-papers is a short extract from a newspaper on mortality, taken from a sermon recorded in the Boston Gazette. On the next leaf is a short manuscript account from the nineteenth-century recalling a Mrs Banks (likely the Mrs Banks née Truman whose initials are tooled to the binding), on her deathbed, reading the passage aloud to a Miss Sophie Banks before declaring that she would paste it in her prayer book. The manuscript authors supposes that Mrs Banks must have 'lost no time' in doing so, as she died the morning after, on 11 February 1834. The last record of what may have been its owners dying act, which intimately shows a passage of sermonising being taken from print, to an oral discussion between two women, to its final resting place, pasted to the end of this volume. ESTC T87234.…