S[T]. MARK'S CHURCH PHILADELPHIA AND ITS LADY CHAPEL WITH AN ACCOUNT OF ITS HISTORY AND TREASURES

New York: Privately printed by the De Vinne Press, 1909. ONE OF 400 COPIES. 302 x 235 mm. (11 7/8 x 9 1/4"). 71 pp.
REMARKABLY ANIMATED GOTHIC-STYLE BLACK MOROCCO, VERY ELABORATELY DECORATED IN GILT AND BLIND, BY ZAEHNSDORF (stamp-signed on front turn-in), covers with ornate frames comprised of 16 compartments, eight of these intricately gilt featuring repeating Maltese crosses, rose windows, and a flame design, the other eight with a blind stamp of one of the four evangelists (at the corners) or else the Salvator, the frame enclosing a large central panel stamp within a gilt frame, that on the upper cover depicting St. Mark with his lion, that on the lower cover showing the Virgin Mary holding a lily; raised bands, spine compartments with central blind-stamped fleuron flanked by gilt rules and several small gilt stamps, turn-ins repeating the gilt elements in the cover frames, cream-colored watered silk endleaves, all edges gilt. With 127 photographic plates showing the architecture and treasures of the church, 20 of these in color, all with captioned tissue guards. Just a hint of rubbing to corners, otherwise A CHOICE COPY of an impressively bound book, with only the most insignificant signs of use.

This is a luxuriously produced and handsomely bound record of the history, architecture, and treasures of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, founded in 1847 by members of the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement. Urging a return to Catholic "High Church" ritual in the Anglican Church, the Oxford Movement advocated church architecture based upon that of the distinctly Christian buildings of the high Gothic period (ca. 1350-1450). Accordingly, the founding members of St. Mark's hired Philadelphia architect John Notman to construct a church partially based upon Medieval plans furnished by the British Ecclesiological Society. The original rather simple Neo-Gothic church, dedicated in 1849, was transformed under the leadership of our author, Rector Alfred Mortimer, into one of great ecclesiastical beauty with magnificent stained-glass windows (including one from 1592) and ornate altars. One of the major enhancements was the Lady Chapel, donated in 1900 by department store heir (and important book collector) Rodman Wanamaker in memory of his wife, Fernanda. The elaborate altar commissioned for the chapel seems to have inspired the decoration of our binding, with its bas-relief panels depicting St. Mark and the Virgin Mary. The large central panel stamps have crisp definition, giving the effect of carved onyx, which is perfectly set off by rich gilt tooling. As usual, the Zaehnsdorf bindery has produced a piece of work appropriate for the book it covers, imaginative and tasteful in its design, and exacting in its execution..