Sale 2501 - Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books, March 7, 2019

2 c   [ALLESTREE, RICHARD.] The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. Or an Impartial Survey of the Ruines of Christian Religion, undermin’d by Unchristian Practice. 2 engraved plates showing King David and the prophet Ezekiel. [20], 449, [3] pages, including initial imprimatur leaf and ad leaf at end. 8vo, 182x119 mm, contemporary black morocco by one of the queens ’ binders , lavishly gilt-tooled to all-over pattern of drawer-handle tools, pointillé volutes and floral motifs, dots, and stars, partly accentuated with painted enamel (oxidized to gray), recased in the 19th-century, top of spine chipped, joints rubbed; blank recto of imprimatur leaf adhered to verso of front free endpaper in gutter; marginal toning or browning, increasingly noticeable toward end, small piece torn from blank upper margin of title. London: R. Norton for Robert Pawlett, 1674 [1,000/2,000] Devotional work first published in 1667, in an attractive binding from one of the 4 Restoration workshops known as the Queens’ binders for having bound books for Catherine of Braganza and Mary of Modena in a closely similar style. Wing A1102; see Nixon, English Restoration Bookbinding, pages 32-77 and plates 56-77.