Our miniature edition of the English metrical psalms, a spectacular and very rare example of a seventeenth-century openwork silver binding, was a highlight of our Firsts 2024 catalogue and appeared on the front cover of the 18 May 2024 issue of the Antiques Trade Gazette.  

The vogue for embroidered bindings in the first half of the seventeenth century is well documented, and many examples have survived that made use of silver thread. But while it is known that English craftsmen were also producing solid silver bindings in this period, few if any surviving examples have been definitively identified. The present binding may be one such, and bears certain distinctively English features, such as the flat spine and the hinges that fasten front-to-back.

The style of decoration and the lack of a hallmark suggest it might have been produced by one of the Dutch or Netherlandish silversmiths active in London at this date (the most famous of whom was Christiaen van Vianen) – despite the extremely high quality of their work, as aliens they were not permitted to hallmark their silver. It could also have been bound in the Netherlands for an English exile.

Read the full article here.