Persian MS 447 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Binding

Possibly rebound in Delhi in a hybrid British-Indian style for former owner Colonel George William Hamilton between 1863 and 1867.

Resewn on a single flat, wide support, possibly a leather thong, put down on the pastedowns, with stuck-on folded fabric headbands at head and tail. Rebound in a 'hemmed' binding with dark red, smooth goatskin leather applied only to the spine perimeters of the pasteboards—apparently reused, given the a mandorla-shaped depression on the interior pastedowns— without a flap (type III binding as per Déroche). Boards faced with likely British-made, glazed and polished, predominantly sienna-coloored 'Spanish' wave patterned marbled paper with dark blue-green shell veins. Endpapers of coarse, heavily flocked paper likely handmade in the Indian subcontinent.

Board margins blind-tooled with a wide decorative roll featuring a scrollwork flourish bounded by double fillet lines either side, with single and double yellow ruled lines also drawn on either side. An octagonal paper spine label Persian bears the title of the volume in nasta‘līq: ‘Siyar-i Muḥammad ‘Alī’.

240 × 162 × 20 mm.