BINDING USING EMBROIDERY SAMPLERS

Hassl, Johann Aloys: Der Tempel Gottes das Herz des recht betenden und fromm lebenden Christen ... Lindau, Verlag der Kranzfelderschen Buchhandlung, 1832.

This early nineteenth-century devotional work by school head and priest Johann Aloys Hassl has an unusual and attractive binding that incorporates embroidered samplers, with details of the Lamb of God (front) and a chalice (rear). The samplers are apparently the work of a child named Sabina Heberle, who gave the book to her mother Johanna on the occasion of her ‘Namensfest’ on the 24th of May 1835, i.e. the feast day of the saint with whom she shares her name. The title page indicates that this is the second edition of the text, unaltered from the first (we find no copies of the first edition in OCLC). 

Details

Printed. One volume,  16.3 x 11.5 cms in binding, octavo, pp. 570 [6] + frontispiece (Fr Pecht lith). ‘Zum Namensfest meiner Mutter Johanna Heberle von Sabina Heberle 24 Mai 1835’ (verso of second free endpaper). Two further inscriptions to endpapers, both of Josepha Mittermaier  of Oberhausen and dated 1878. Bound in green goatskin over boards, decorated in gilt, with embroidered samplers set into covers (details above). Gilt sides, dentelles, and edges. With original clasp. Condition (textblock): foxing to paper, worm tracks from pp. 327-454 (affecting at most c.4 words per page). Condition (binding): split to leather at lower joint. Rubbed, slight wear, a single wormhole.

OCLC shows no copies outside mainland Europe.