BINDING - William Bond CAVENDISH [?but William Bengo COLLYER] (1782-1854). Lectures on Scripture Comparison, London, 1826, 8vo, FINELY BOUND BY THOMAS GOSDEN in contemporary red morocco gilt. A ROYAL BINDING FOR QUEEN ADELAIDE.

BINDING - William Bond CAVENDISH [?but William Bengo COLLYER] (1782-1854).  Lectures on Scripture Comparison: or, Christianity Compared with Hinduism, Mohammedanism, The Ancient Philosophy, and Deism. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1826. 8vo (215 x 132mm). FINELY BOUND BY THOMAS GOSDEN in contemporary red crushed morocco gilt, the covers with a border of floriated tooling in gilt and blind, the upper cover with a morocco label laid down lettered in gilt, "The Rev. W. B. Cavendish's Lectures on Scripture Comparisons [sic]. Her Majesty's Copy", the spine gilt in six compartments, gilt edges (extremities rubbed, corners bumped). Provenance: A ROYAL BINDING BY THOMAS GOSDEN FOR QUEEN ADELAIDE, the wife of William IV (label on the front cover and bookseller's old description tipped-in at the front). The binding is faintly stamped on the front pastedown, "Bound by T. Gosden". Thomas Gosden (1780-1840) was chiefly known for binding sporting books, particular The Compleat Angler, and so it is rare to see a theological book bound by him. The book itself is, in all other copies we have located including that in the British Library, attributed to William Bengo Collyer, an English Congregational Minister and writer. We can only assume that the author assumed a pseudonym, retaining his initials, for the present edition, although his motivation for doing so remains obscure. The work was first published, with an identical title, and under Collyer's name, in 1823.