The famed "Gun-Wad Bible"
Biblia, das ist die ganze gottliche hielige Schrift alten und neuen Testaments nach der deutschen Uebersetzung D. Martin Luthers...
Germantown: Christopher Saur, 1776. Thick 4to, pp. [4], 992, 277, [3]; ex-AAS, with their engraved bookplate on the front pastedown; title page cleaned and backed, the title and second leaf with neat repairs to the fore-margin; moderate toning and foxing throughout, and a bit of occasional waterstaining; full contemporary calf, black morocco label on spine; rear board replaced, and the whole rebacked using the original front board and spine; in spite of the restorations, a pretty nice copy, lacking the original clasps. A pencil note on the flyleaf reads: "Purchased Anderson Auction Co,. Sale Oct. 13, 1909." And a corroborating notation in ink on an old bookseller's catalogue cutting pasted in under the bookplate: "Geo. Matthews sale 10/13/09 Anderson Gall." Saur's famed "Gun-Wad Bible," so named because the remaining unbound sheets were used for gun-wadding when the British entered Philadelphia during the American Revolution. The first Bible printed in the Western Hemisphere was Eliot's Indian Bible of 1663. The first Bible printed in the Western Hemisphere in a European language was Christopher Saur's German Bible, published in 1743; it was reprinted in 1763, and again in that fateful year, 1776. "This edition consisted of 3000 copies. The Revolutionary War broke out about the time it was issued, and after the Battle of Germantown, Saur, to preserve the residue of his property, and in the supposition that American independence could not be maintained, went into Philadelphia and resided there whilst the British held possession of that city. His estate was subsequently confiscated in consequence, and his books sold. The principle part of this third edition of the Germantown Bible in sheets were thus destroyed, having been used for cartridge paper" (O'Callaghan, p. 29). Wright, Early Bibles of America, pp. 28-54; Darlow & Moule 4240; Evans 14663; Hildeburn 3336; Bötte & Tannhof 475; Sabin 5194. Item #38874
Price: $4,200.00
