3-008-696 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Wedding presents to Her Royal Highness Princess Alice: Prayer book and casket from the Matrons of England, Bible and casket from the Maidens of England, 1862. 'The Offering of the Maidens of England is a special large-paper copy of Bagster's facsimile octavo Polyglot Bible, bound in the richest purple morocco. It is mounted with beautifully-pierced and engraved clasps of the finest gold, bearing devices of the national Rose, and contains in the centre monograms, coronet, and initial A entwined with rosebuds...The edges of the leaves are most brilliantly illuminated (by James West)... The casket to contain the Bible is of ebony, elegantly carved (by Messrs. Kemm Brothers) with enamelled escutcheons...The Gift of the Matrons of England is Bell's large-paper edition of the Prayer Book, with ornamental capitals, red rubrics, &c., bound in the same deep morocco, and ornamented with the finest gold clasps and monograms, of a design to harmonise with the Bible...The rich vellum flyleaves are adorned with fresh varieties of illumination...The casket is of polished ebony, panelled and inlaid with ivory. On the top are the initials A. M, M., with a wreath of roses encircling them, exquisitely carved in ivory'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.