Exquisite English Rebus Bible at Auction
Amongst a collection of antique rifles, carved pipes, and Civil War imprints for sale tomorrow at Cowan's Auctions in Cincinnati is this beautiful late eighteenth-century English rebus Bible. Titled The Hieroglyphick Bible, III Edition by its anonymous creator, the 8 x 12.75" copybook contains selected verses from the King James Bible, illustrated in rebus form, with small watercolors throughout. The auction house believes the illustrator to have been an English seaman--albeit one acquainted with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
The book comes from the collection of E. Norman Flayderman, a collector and antique arms dealer who founded the militaria outfit, N. Flayderman & Co. According to Cowan's, "Flayderman apparently acquired this while researching his book, Scrimshaw and Scrimshanders: Whales and Whalemen (New Milford, CT, 1972)." Files found with the rebus Bible indicate that it originally hailed from a New Bedford, Massachusetts, family. 
This illustrated Bible is, as Cowan's intimates in its catalogue, sea journal meets Nuremberg Chronicle. It is estimated to reach $15,000-25,000 at auction.
Images via Cowan's Auctions
