Antique Bible

[s1a1om]

As my profile says I'm agnostic, and I don't have any religious background at all. However, I recently received a beautiful antique bible that has been passed down in the family for a few generations. And I'm looking for more information on it. I was wondering if anyone here could tell me more about it.

It appears to have been published in 1880. 13 inches tall, 10 inches wide, 3 inches thick. See attached photos. It also has a section for recording births, deaths, and marriages in the family.

Was it common for families to have these in the late 1800s (and is it common today)? How much would something like this have cost back then? How many were produced? Were/Are these used daily for prayers/study or was it something that was kept on the shelf for special events?

Its a really cool family heirloom and I'd like to understand its context a bit more.

 

[GospelS]

Wow. That’s wonderful. It’s daily bread to your soul. Go ahead and eat (read/study) it.

 

[tampasteve]

Lovely, thank you for sharing. Family/Heriloom Bibles are still fairly common gifts to newly married couples or couples having their first child. I have two, one that sits prominently on a side table year round, and another that is actually filled out and used/displayed at Christmas time. Both are King James Version in my case and look superficially similar to yours, with illuminated manuscript type pages and pictures, mine also have gilded edges, which I suspect yours does as well, but it is hard to say from the pictures.

It looks like ABE Books has a similar version for around $366 and Amazon has a similar (if not the same) for around $625. Honestly, Amazon is not the best source for more valuable books though, so I would not use that as a good judge of value. However, I am not a good resource at all as to say what makes one 1880 Bible worth significantly more than another other than condition.

Modern Family Bibles that are mass produced range from about $50 to well over $500, it just depends. Mine were each around $100.

 

[HTacianas]

As my profile says I'm agnostic, and I don't have any religious background at all. However, I recently received a beautiful antique bible that has been passed down in the family for a few generations. And I'm looking for more information on it. I was wondering if anyone here could tell me more about it.

It appears to have been published in 1880. 13 inches tall, 10 inches wide, 3 inches thick. See attached photos. It also has a section for recording births, deaths, and marriages in the family.

Was it common for families to have these in the late 1800s (and is it common today)? How much would something like this have cost back then? How many were produced? Were/Are these used daily for prayers/study or was it something that was kept on the shelf for special events?

Its a really cool family heirloom and I'd like to understand its context a bit more.

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If it was published in the 1880s it's fairly common. Bibles at that time were usually given as gifts, especially as wedding gifts. As you pointed out, it has spaces to record births, deaths, etc. Those records could be actually be used at the as legal records of births and marriages. The reasoning was that no one would defile a bible by recording false information.

It's value is for the most part sentimental. There were so many of them produced that they aren't considered rare. If the records in it are of your family you should keep it and hand it down to your children.

 

[Crwth]

Wow, that's a treasure for sure. 1880. As others have noted, these bibles were somewhat common back then, given as gifts at weddings most typically. Their distant cousins are today's "Study Bibles." Mr. Brown was a presbyterian minister, Scottish, and his bibles first appeared in 1778, so they were fairly popular. Text, commentary, concordance, history... there's a lot there to truly appreciate.

I have always been impressed by biblical commentary from the 1500-1800's - primarily for their utter wealth of scholarship. Some of it is so in-depth it can be hard to follow without serious study, but for them it seems pretty par for the course. We, on the other hand, seem to be hampered by too much television and Internet to be that studious.

Anyhoo - hold on to it and treat it carefully. And if you're a mind to actually do some study from it, I hope you find it truly valuable.

 

[Sunshinee777]

As my profile says I'm agnostic, and I don't have any religious background at all. However, I recently received a beautiful antique bible that has been passed down in the family for a few generations. And I'm looking for more information on it. I was wondering if anyone here could tell me more about it.

It appears to have been published in 1880. 13 inches tall, 10 inches wide, 3 inches thick. See attached photos. It also has a section for recording births, deaths, and marriages in the family.

Was it common for families to have these in the late 1800s (and is it common today)? How much would something like this have cost back then? How many were produced? Were/Are these used daily for prayers/study or was it something that was kept on the shelf for special events?

Its a really cool family heirloom and I'd like to understand its context a bit more.

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I'm so jealous right now! That is sooo beautiful. Protect it all cost!!!