The Bible

This is Holman's Edition of The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Translated out of the Original Tongues, published by A. J. Holman & Co. at No. 1222 Arch Street, Philadelphia, dated 1883 on the title page. The title page further describes it as being issued "with Complete Concordance, embracing every passage of Scripture in the largest editions" and including the Apocrypha and Psalms.

It is a massive presentation folio in the full Victorian manner: 10.25 inches wide, 13 inches tall, and a full 4.25 inches thick at the spine. It weighs roughly twelve pounds. The binding is black leather over heavy beveled boards, blocked in blind and richly gilt. The front cover carries "The Pictorial Bible" in an ornamental gilt cartouche, surrounded by four gilt corner panels of foliate scrollwork and two gilt scripture banners — "The Entrance of Thy Word Giveth Light" at the head and "Thy Word Is a Lamp Unto My Feet" at the foot. The spine has six compartments, gilt-lettered HOLY BIBLE / REFERENCES, BIBLE DICTIONARY / TEXT BOOK AND REVISED NEW TESTAMENT, and ILLUSTRATED, with gilt cross-and-vine ornaments in the remaining panels. Both original nickeled metal clasps are present and functional, engraved with quatrefoil crosses. All edges are gilt.

Illustrations

The illustration program is the reason these Holman Bibles are collected. The volume contains full-page steel-engraved plates including several after Gustave Doré, engraved by John C. McRae of New York — the plate of The Escape of David is shown in the photographs with the Doré and McRae credits legible in the margin. Other plates include Daniel in the Den of Lions after Horace Vernet, Esther Accusing Haman to Ahasuerus, Ruth Gleaning, Fields of Bethany, The Faithful Servant, and Ten Commandments with an engraved decorative border. Several plates retain their original tissue guards.

Bound in as well are chromolithographed illuminated leaves printed in blue, red, green and gold — an illuminated Ten Commandments leaf bearing a copyright date of 1873, and a Beatitudes leaf ("Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit, For Theirs Is the Kingdom of Heaven") with a Philadelphia copyright line dated 1877. There is also a hand-colored folding map of Modern Jerusalem engraved by W. & A. K. Johnston of Edinburgh, and hundreds of in-text wood engravings scattered through the illustrated Bible Dictionary at the front.

The Family Record — Springs of Fort Mill, South Carolina

The Family Record pages are completed in period ink.

Marriage: "Mr. Brevard D. Springs and S. Carrie Blackmon were united … at Charlotte, N.C., on the 17th day of December in the year of our Lord 1884, in presence of parents of bride and groom and many friends." Signed James H. Thornwell, Fort Mill, S.C.

The officiant is the Rev. James Henley Thornwell Jr. (d. 1907), son of the celebrated South Carolina theologian James Henley Thornwell. The younger Thornwell began his ministry at Unity Presbyterian Church in Fort Mill in 1882 and served York County congregations until his death.

Births, recorded on the printed leaves and on an additional sheet laid into the Births opening in the same hand:

• A first son, born at Fort Mill, S.C., October 9, 1885; baptized Fort Mill Presbyterian Church, April 11, 1886, by Rev. J. H. Thornwell
• Marguerite Clarkson Springs, first daughter and second child, born Fort Mill, S.C., March 22, 1887
• Blandina Baxter Springs, second daughter and third child, born Fort Mill, January 9, 1889; baptized at the Presbyterian Manse, Fort Mill, by Rev. Jas. H. Thornwell
• Esther White Springs, third daughter and fourth child, born Charlotte, N.C., June 26, 1892; baptized at the Presbyterian Manse, Fort Mill
• Eli Baxter Springs, second son and fifth child, born Fort Mill, July 19, 1894; baptized at the home of his parents at Fort Mill

The Springs name is inseparable from Fort Mill, South Carolina, and the Blackmon, Clarkson, White and Baxter names that appear as given names here are the surnames of allied Carolina families. The Deaths pages were left blank. I have not attempted to trace the genealogy further and make no claims beyond what is written in the book — but a buyer with an interest in York County or Mecklenburg County families is buying an unworked primary source.

The Laid-In Ephemera

Everything below was found loose inside the Bible and is included.

The material centers on Brevard D. and Carrie Springs and their children in Fort Mill and Charlotte, roughly 1899 to 1950, and includes:

• A small paper packet holding a lock of infant hair, inscribed "Dear little Baxter's hair, June 5th '99"
• Newspaper mourning clippings for little Baxter Springs, the 20-month-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Brevard D. Springs, who died in Charlotte on Friday, June 3rd and was buried at Elmwood Cemetery — one headed "Little Mounds in Elmwood," one a formal death notice, plus a memorial verse clipping
• A die-cut, embossed and chromolithographed "Loving Greetings to Mother" greeting card
• A Mrs. Brevard D. Springs printed stationery envelope and matching letter sheet, 1614 S. Boulevard, Charlotte, N.C.
• A typed circular letter from a missionary at Taichow, China, dated November 18, 1931, written on the death of the writer's wife and referring to Hudson Taylor's grave at Chinkiang
• A handwritten letter on Wm. Clarkson Sr. letterhead, 212 South Pine Street, Albuquerque, New Mexico, dated December 26, 1931, addressed to "Mr. Eli Springs 2nd, c/o N.Y. Cotton Exchange, New York City," signed "Uncle Willie"
• The retained carbon copy of Eli B. Springs' reply, dated December 29, 1931, with candid Depression-era content about business conditions
• A printed "Summary of Doctrines of the Christian Faith Which Presbyterians Generally Believe," dated The Manse, April 1950
• An Ordination to the Priesthood program for the Rev. James McDowell Dick, Church of the Holy Comforter, Sumter, South Carolina, Whitsunday, June 5, 1927
• A used Horse Shoe Curve, Saluda, N.C. postcard, Saluda cancel, addressed to Mrs. B. D. Springs at 1614 S. Boulevard, Charlotte
• Long newspaper clippings including the obituary of Henry T. Thompson of South Carolina, author of Ousting the Carpetbaggers From South Carolina; obituaries and tributes for Col. E. A. Osborne, Confederate veteran and Episcopal clergyman; a feature on Col. A. K. Sanders of Columbia; a Delphian Society notice; and a 1926 cotton-trade item, "Cotton Men in South Gather for Big Meet"

The last photo is a composite scan showing most of the ephemera. Additional individual photographs or high-resolution scans of any laid-in item are available on request — just message me and tell me which pieces you want to see.

Condition

Used, structurally sound. Please study all photographs, which form part of this description.

Binding: The leather is rubbed and scuffed with some loss to the black finish at the corners, along the joints, and at the spine head and tail, where the underlying board and cloth show. Corners are bumped and frayed. Both clasps are present, engage properly, and function. The gilt remains bright and legible on the spine and both covers.

Text block: Firm and tight in the binding, with no loose or detached sections observed. Pages are clean and supple with light age toning and scattered foxing, heaviest at the edges and on the plate tissues. Gilt edges are bright with some rubbing. The illustrated plates and chromolithographs present well. No water damage, no mold, no odor, and no marking or underlining in the text noted beyond the ink entries on the Family Record pages.

This is a 143-year-old working family Bible, not a collector's copy preserved under glass. It shows the wear of a book that was used, carried, and lived with.