The Psalms of David in Metre

1823

de Beer Sb 1823 B

Edinburgh: Printed by Sir D. Hunter Blair and J. Bruce

While London was the major centre of English bookbinding through the handpress era, Scotland too had its centres of excellence: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and St Andrews. Two distinctive Scottish designs developed: the herringbone style and the wheel, which appears to be a descendant of the fan pattern from Europe. Although this 1823 copy of the Psalms of David does not carry either of these two distinctive designs, there is the Celtic feel to the red morocco cover, with its interlacing patterns of knots and circles. Notice the very delicate blind-tooling around the inner frame, and the flower corner-pieces. This very Scottish book also has gilt edges, and gold-tooled turn-ins.