An Oxford Bible, Circa 1932
So how does a nicely-bound Bible age? That's what our friend Christian in Sweden wanted to know, so he snapped these photos of a 75-year-old Oxford Bible bound in goatskin. It's leather-lined with art-gilt (red under gold) edges. As you can see in the photos, it was published in 1932. The original owner recorded the dates of her conversion (November 7, 1933) and baptism (November 12, 1932).
Above: Full-yapp edges have an organic look, a far cry from machined uniformity.
Below: The art-gilt pages have held up over time.
Christian reports:
"The gold imprinting is just so good and nice, not faded even after 75 years. The full yapp edge is very supple still, even if it's worn in the edges and lost the black in certain parts. The covers are not so supple since they have a paper board between the leather lining and the cover. Still, it is bendable and I can say I would easily choose this Bible instead of most modern Bibles, even though this one is 75 years old!"
Above: A traditional double-column setting.
Below: A look at the inside cover.
Above: Printed in London, 1932.
Below: The vintage edition compared to a modern Cambridge NKJV.
The nice thing about these photos is that they suggest how much use you can expect from a well-made Bible. I don't know about you, but I'm more interested in a Bible that will be in one piece when I'm through with it than one that looks pretty out of the box. If you can have both in one package, so much the better.
Above: A detail of the grain.
Below: Compared to a modern Cambridge KJV.
Thanks, Christian, for sharing this find with the rest of us!
J. Mark Bertrand is a novelist and pastor whose writing on Bible design has helped spark a publishing revolution. Mark is the author of Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World (Crossway, 2007), as well as the novels Back on Murder, Pattern of Wounds, and Nothing to Hide—described as a “series worth getting attached to” (Christianity Today) by “a major crime fiction talent” (Weekly Standard) in the vein of Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, and Henning Mankell.
Mark has a BA in English Literature from Union University, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston, and an M.Div. from Heidelberg Theological Seminary. Through his influential Bible Design Blog, Mark has championed a new generation of readable Bibles. He is a founding member of the steering committee of the Society of Bible Craftsmanship, and chairs the Society’s Award Committee. His work was featured in the November 2021 issue of FaithLife’s Bible Study Magazine.
Mark also serves on the board of Worldview Academy, where he has been a member of the faculty of theology since 2003. Since 2017, he has been an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He and his wife Laurie life in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.