FRITH -- The Holy Bible. Illustrated with Photographs by Frith. Glasgow, Edinburgh and London: William Mackenzie, 1862.

2 volumes, 2º (450 x 330mm). 57 albumen prints (230 x 160mm, or the reverse) mounted on card with printed captions. (Some prints with light spotting or minor wear, some mounts with occasional light marginal soiling or light spotting.) Original red morocco, edges mounted in brass, and with floral brass clasps and catches, the sides with a broad, blind-stamped border around a recessed central panel with the crowned cipher of Queen Victoria in gilt, gilt edge, spines with raised bands gilt and lettered in compartments (light scattered soiling, light scuffing, spotting on the binder's blanks).

FIRST EDITION, THE RARE DELUXE ISSUE of the celebrated Frith-illustrated Bible produced for the 1862 International Exhibition. Frith, a devout Quaker, 'presented the radical possibility of seeing photographs of the biblical sites alongside related verses of scripture... he sought to defend and promote his faith by conscripting the veracity of science and materialism to his cause and considered photography to be the most effective medium for his campaign' (Foster et al.) One of just 170 copies, complete with all 57 albumen prints. Eyre & Spottiswoode published an edition with only 20 prints that same year, which is sometimes confused with this edition. ABPC records just one deluxe copy at auction in over 35 years. Foster, Heiting and Stuhlman, Imagining Paradise, pp. 68-9; Gernsheim, Incunabula of British Photographic Literature, 1839-1875, p. 36, no.184; Herbert, The English Bible, 1940.

No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium.