Watts, Isaac; Rippon, John. The Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts, arranged by Dr. Rippon; with Dr. Rippon's Selection. In one volume, with enlarged and Improved Indexes. Philadelphia: David Clarke, 1827 & 1831. [8543]
Full calf; red calf title label, gilt lines to spine, 5 3/4 inches tall, light wear to bottom of spine, no cracks, tight. Stipple portrait frontispiece of Dr. Watts, engraved on steel by Joseph Cone; engraved title page on steel (line), also by Cone. Includes the extra title page at p. (xxvii.), An Arrangement.... (see below). 906 pp. Dark foxing to the plates, light foxing in the text, binding very good; there is a dampstain on the front end papers & title page, that fades out by p. 60.
The second section which begins at p. 470 includes an engraved portrait frontispiece of Rippon and an extra engraved title page, both by Cone. Thus begins, A Selection of Hymns...full title below. Very good. Full leather.
The Selection of Hymns has a separate title page, same imprint, with the date 1827.
Tp. at p. (xxvii.) is: An Arrangement of the Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D. D. Including (what no other volume contains) All His Hymns, With which the Vacancies in the First Book were filled up in 1786, and also those in 1793. Now collated, with each of the Doctor's own Editions: To which are subjoined, Indexes, very much enlarged, both of Scriptures and Subjects. Philadelphia: David Clarke, 1830.
The second section with the Rippon portrait as frontispiece is titled, A Selection of Hymns, from the Best Authors, including A Great Number of Originals: Intended to be an Appendix to Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns. By John Rippon, D.D. Philadelphia: D. Clark, 1827.
John Rippon, D.D. (1750-1836), "an English Baptist minister of distinction." The son of a Baptist minister, Rippon studied at Bristol, and was the successor of John Gill in the pastorate of the Baptist Church in Southwark.
"Like the majority of his co-religionists, Rippon gave his warm sympathy to the Americans during the war of independence, and was in correspondence with leading baptists on the other side of the Atlantic."...From 1790 to 1802 Rippon edited The Baptist Annual Register."
Rippon collected material relating to Bunhill Fields, the nonconformist burial ground in London, and his eleven volumes of manuscripts were purchased by the British Museum from a descendant in 1870, which included biographies of hundreds of nonconformist ministers.
"Rippon is best known as the compiler of a 'Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors, intended as an Appendix to Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns,' London, 1827...Rippon published a tenth edition, with sixty additional hymns, in 1800, (London). A thirtieth edition, with further additional hymns, appeared in 1830; and in 1844 appeared the 'comprehensive edition,' known to hymnologists as 'The Comprehensive Rippon,' containing all 1,170 hymns in one hundred metres. Among a few hymns of Rippon's own composition are some of acknowledged merit, such as 'The day has dawned, Jehovah comes.'" - DNB.
With a signed provenance card from the collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.