This book is the second edition of the Antiquities of the city of Exeter by the antiquarian Richard Izacke. Izacke served as Chamberlain of Exeter and published the first edition of his history in 1677 from a manuscript he had prepared for the city’s corporation 12 years earlier. The book gives an overview of interesting events in Exeter’s history from 1200 to 1676. However, many of the dates before 1590 appear to have been plagiarised from a sixteenth century manuscript by Izacke’s predecessor as Chamberlain, John Hooker.

The work was criticised for its inaccuracies, but it was reprinted several times during Izacke’s lifetime. George IV would own a copy of the 1681 reprint in his library at Carlton House (see RCIN 1072184). This second edition was printed in 1724. It contained a continuation by Izacke’s son Samuel and was dedicated to the Prince of Wales, the future George II.

A note by the Royal Librarian John Glover at the front of this book states that it was acquired in June 1854 due to it being “evidently the identical Copy presented to K: George II then P. of Wales” however, it cannot be confirmed that this is the copy given to the king as all provenance information except the beautiful binding has been removed. It was one of the books selected by Olwen Hedley in the 1960s as a fine example of bookbinding in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Hedley’s ‘Additional Bookbindings’ serve as a supplement to the catalogue of fine bindings compiled in 1893 by the Royal Librarian Richard Rivington Holmes.

Binding information

Contemporary red goatskin binding, with gold-tooling on both sides and spine.

Both sides tooled in the ‘cottage-roof’ style: outer triple fillet border surmounted by a swirling vine roll, with winged cherubs in each of the inner corners; inner ‘cottage-roof’ border formed of fillets, dotted rolls and gouges, the upper and lower border surmounted by rows of small sprouting-flower tools, with the rest of the space filled with a profusion of swirling vines, dots, stars, circles, and fleurons; in the centre of the cottage-roof border, above and below the arms, a wreath-like pattern formed of a series of separate star, circle, flower and fleuron tools; in the centre, the arms of George II as Prince of Wales, surrounded by the garter, surmounted by an imperial crown with a lion, with a rose and thistle to either side, flanked by a lion rampant and unicorn supporters, standing on plinths above a ribbon with the motto: ‘ICH DEIN’ [sic].

Sides and insides of both boards tooled with triangular and fleuron roll.

Spine divided into seven compartments with raised bands, each tooled with floral roll; second compartment contains an additional piece of dark red leather with the title: ‘MEMORIAL / OF / EXETER’, surrounded by triple fillet border with circles in each of the corners; all other compartments tooled with ‘cross-hatch’ design formed of dotted rolls, with alternating thistles and acorns in two of the four divisions, and flowers and fleurons in the rest.

Contemporary marble endpapers; all edges gilt.

Binding design very similar to RCIN 1082340 (Add B 63); outer roll border and wreath-like pattern of stars, circles, flowers and fleurons identical on both volumes.