Inscription on John Bovington's copy of The Whole Duty of Man

7 1/8 x 4 inches

1828

This inscribed flyleaf on a copy of a very popular and influential evangelical religious text reveals was presented to a young man upon his entering his apprenticeship as a haberdasher. The seal on the cover contains the words "The gift of the Haberdasher's Company," so the book was presented to the young aspprentice — John Bovington — by an organization that was a nineteenth-century survivor of the medieval system of craft guilds. The Haberdasher's Company both wished to promote religion and produce a well-behaved apprentice: "The only intent of this ensuing TREATISE is, to be a short and plain direction to the very meanest of Readers, to behave themselves in this world, that they may be happy for ever in the next" (i). [GPL].

Other plates

Leather binding

Marbelized endpapers

Title page

References