Oxford Book of Common Prayer

[Church of England]. Book of Common Prayer. Oxford: Printed at the University Press by John Collingwood and Company, 1842.
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Like their forebears, many nineteenth-century worshippers were eager to possess richly adorned prayer books. Bridwell Library owns two copies of this Oxford edition of the Book of Common Prayer, each bound in purple velvet by the fashionable London binder James Hayday (1796–1872). One copy features gilt corner- and center-pieces, gauffered edges, and an elaborate fore-edge clasp; the other copy has gilt corner-pieces, two clasps, and gilt edges with painted scrolls reading “Blessed is He that watcheth” (Revelation 16:15) and “Watch and pray” (Matthew 26:41).