Constantlyreforming
Puritan Board Sophomore
Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
So, I recently purchased a 1st Edition of John Owen’s Death of Death in the Death of Christ from 1650. It is completely unbound, and I will be doing some work to put a nice cover on it. The text is in phenomenal shape for it being an unbound copy. It includes the Vindication of Mr. Owens as a part of the book as well, also a first edition.
I purchased this from New Zealand from a small shop that specializes in antiquarian books. Anyhow, I was able to talk them down just a bit. My question is this…
The top of the title page, above the title, has a signature of “John Brown”. Now, there are several famous John Browns out there….the most famous to us likely being John Brown of Haddington, who lived during the mid to late 1700s. Then, there was the famous John Brown, the abolishionist, who lived during the mid 1800s. There was also another theologian, a Puritan, named John Brown of Wamphray, who lived in the late 1600s. Now, it is definitely not the signature of John Brown the abolishionist, as there are several examples of this online, and the signature looks nothing like it.
That leaves the other two as possibilities…it could be theirs, or, an anonymous John Brown. I contacted a few Puritan book dealers, so far to no avail. Any thoughts? From my years of collecting, I can tell you that the signature is definitely prior to 1800, based on the ink, style and size of signature. In addition, it looks as though it may be from after 1700 based on the size of the pen used.
What do you think? Is anyone familiar with these signatures? If anyone could point me in the right direction I would highly appreciate it! See the pictures below.
Thanks in Christ,
Ethan
So, I recently purchased a 1st Edition of John Owen’s Death of Death in the Death of Christ from 1650. It is completely unbound, and I will be doing some work to put a nice cover on it. The text is in phenomenal shape for it being an unbound copy. It includes the Vindication of Mr. Owens as a part of the book as well, also a first edition.
I purchased this from New Zealand from a small shop that specializes in antiquarian books. Anyhow, I was able to talk them down just a bit. My question is this…
The top of the title page, above the title, has a signature of “John Brown”. Now, there are several famous John Browns out there….the most famous to us likely being John Brown of Haddington, who lived during the mid to late 1700s. Then, there was the famous John Brown, the abolishionist, who lived during the mid 1800s. There was also another theologian, a Puritan, named John Brown of Wamphray, who lived in the late 1600s. Now, it is definitely not the signature of John Brown the abolishionist, as there are several examples of this online, and the signature looks nothing like it.
That leaves the other two as possibilities…it could be theirs, or, an anonymous John Brown. I contacted a few Puritan book dealers, so far to no avail. Any thoughts? From my years of collecting, I can tell you that the signature is definitely prior to 1800, based on the ink, style and size of signature. In addition, it looks as though it may be from after 1700 based on the size of the pen used.
What do you think? Is anyone familiar with these signatures? If anyone could point me in the right direction I would highly appreciate it! See the pictures below.
Thanks in Christ,
Ethan