A highly-decorated gold-tooled binding, in brown calf, of a printed book from 1580.
The last leaf of an open book from 1580; the left is printed, with the inscription "Lucy Strong her booke" written on either side of the printer's mark (woodcut). The right side, a blank endpaper, has five coloured drawings of fruits (pears, blackberries, plums or damsons) with leaves attached to the stems.
The title-page of "The treasurie of the French tong: teaching the waye to varie all sortes of verbes" by Claudius Hollyband, printed in London in 1580. The endpaper on the left side has a coloured drawing of what looks like a broom (ie. twigs bundled at one end) pointing upwards.
This week's surprise book find @antiquaries.bsky.social: a lovely gold-tooled copy of a 1580 handbook of French verbs, with these charming 18th-century coloured drawings of fruits (and a broom?). Perhaps those of Lucy Strong, who signed "her booke" at the back.
#herbook #rarebooks #printedbook