Saint James, Westminster.

Proceedings of the Parishioners Relating to the Rectorship, Together with the Address and Testimonial to the Reverend Gerrard Thomas Andrewes, M.A. Clerk in Orders.

Bound at the end is an engraved facsimile of the admission ticket to the Testimonial and Andrewes's card thanking the subscribers for their gifts, along with a woodcut illustrating the bookcase, chair and books, and two newspaper cuttings.

First Edition. 8vo. [206 x 130 x 11 mm]. 52, 20 pp. Bound in contemporary red goatskin, the covers with a gilt border of a thick and four thin fillets and a blind panel composed of fillets and gouges with an anthemion tool in the corners. Smooth spine lettered in gilt between two ornaments, the edges of the boards tooled with a gilt roll, the turns-ins with gilt fillets, marbled endleaves, gilt edges.
London: by T. Brettell, 1846.

A fine copy.

The parishioner's of St. James, Westminster were so disappointed when Andrewes was not appointed to the vacant rectorship that a Testimonial was organised to raise funds to honour him in a more material manner. The list of subscribers at the end numbers 850, and they together contributed £520. Out of this they "procured a series of books, consisting of Macklin's Bible, Boydell's Shakespeare, and Milton, elegantly bound. In addition, a handsome carved oak book-case, and chair together with a valuable glass chronometer, and necessary appendages, have been purchased, and the address voted at a meeting has been elaborately written and illuminated upon vellum".

The reproduction of the ticket and Andrewes's thank you card are signed by the printer "T. H. Rice, Charles St". He is listed amongst the subscribers as having contributed £1.1s and he also gave this book, in its fine binding, to Andrewes. It is inscribed on the front fly-leaf: "Gerrard Tho. Andrewes the gift of Mr. Rice of Charles St. April 13 1847". Thomas H. Rice is listed on BBTI as a stationer at 14 Charles Street, St. James's Square, between 1839 and 1846.

Stock no. ebc2835