Description
Three volume set, The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, and The Apocrapha. The three-volume set was printed in London England for the White, Cochran, and Company in 1815 the volumes bound in contemporary straight-grained red Morocco leather with the covers displaying gilt and blind borders enclosing a dove emblem. Even though the Bible was printed in 1815 my best guess is that the foe edge paintings were probably done in the early part of 1900’s.
Volume one has a beautiful watercolor painting of Eve in the garden of Eden concealed under the gold gilt on the fore-edge. The serpent, disguised as the devil, temps Eve to eat a pomegranate from the tree of knowledge. But Eve tells the serpent what God had said (Genesis 3:3). The serpent replied that she surely won’t die (Genesis 3:4) and that if she eats the fruit of the tree “then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. There Adam and Eve are thrown out of paradise because they ate from the tree. The serpent was absolutely right, neither died. Thus god banished Adam and Eve from the garden for defying his commands. No one would ever return to the garden.
