This black morocco binding boasts fine gold-tooling in a "rectangular" design, incorporating the crowned initials "C.C." within palm branches. This is typical of the work produced for Charles II by his bookbinder Samuel Mearne, who may have introduced the "rectangular" style to England, where it became very popular in the later 17th and early 18th centuries. Similarly the contents of the volume, a folio Book of Common Prayer (London, 1669), are apparently typical of the gifts that Charles bestowed upon favourites in his household. In this case there is a manuscript note detailing the volume's purchase from Frances Maynard, Countess of Warwick, whose ancestor, William, second Baron Maynard (1623-99), as well as being an MA of St John's was controller of the household to Charles II and James II from 1672 to 1687.

Given by Norman Long-Brown.