R. L. Allan's Oxford Brevier Blackface Reference Edition

It's appeared several photos. I've mentioned it a time or two. But until now, I've never posted my thoughts on the Oxford Brevier Blackface Reference Edition from R. L. Allan. This is quite an omission, considering the Brevier Blackface was the first Bible I ever purchased from R. L. Allan, the beginning of the affair, so to speak. So why the long silence? It's one of those love/hate situations. If you think of this edition as the child of Allan's and Oxford, I love what Allan's contributed to the gene pool and feel pretty ambivalent about the Oxford chromosome. It all comes down to one little word: blackface. Whether you love or hate this edition depends entirely on how dark you like your text. If you don't like cream in your coffee or moon in your night, the Brevier Blackface might be the ticket. For everyone else, I recommend the Longprimer.

First, let me explain why I chose Oxford over Cambridge. R. L. Allan offers its own editions from both publishers, and there are actually more options to choose from on the Cambridge side of the equation. The Oxford settings of the KJV tend to look a bit antiquated, as well, both because of the font and the self-pronouncing feature, which might be nice when reading aloud, but doesn't do the intelligibility of the page any favors. Still, I chose an Oxford edition for variety's sake. By the time I discovered Allan's, I already had a shelf full of Cambridge KJVs!

THE ALLAN'S GENE
When the Brevier Blackface arrived, I held it in my hands and immediately swore off all those Cambridge calfskins. What had I been thinking? How had I ever considered those things nice, or even adequate. In a world where such covers and bindings existed, what excuse could there be for anything else? Yes, it was an extreme reaction, but consider the context. For years I'd been on this hit-or-miss journey. I wanted to be a one-Bible-guy, but there was always some reason that the edition at hand couldn't be the One. When I opened that blue box, unwrapped the paper strips binding the Brevier Blackface, and got my first look at the form, my first sniff of the scent, my first touch of the goatskin, I was ecstatic. If I'd been a Victorian heroine, I'd have promptly swooned.

The cover is flexible. The binding is sewn. The overall impression is one of refinement. And for the first time, I had a Bible that opened flat straight from the box and felt great in the hand. This was also my first taste of full yapp edges, the extended leather edges that overlap the pages, protecting the gilt while making it marginally more difficult to flip around from passage to passage.

Of all the Bibles I've featured here, this one was particularly difficult to photograph. The pebble grain is tight, the surface glossy without a hint of cheap shine. When I snapped the pictures, though, they never quite reflect what I see with my eyes. The box is marked "RL Allan 20," which by today's listing indicates a highland goatskin cover, but mine is stamped "Cape Levant Morocco" inside, which seems to correspond to today's #26. Mine also says "Oxford Binding" on the inside back cover.

I find the size of this edition particularly handy. It measures 7 and 1/8 by 4 and 3/4, just over an inch wide. As a result, it occupies an intermediate place between truly compact pocket editions and full-size references. To me, this form factor is near the sweet spot for a "carrying" Bible, the kind you tote to church -- small enough not to be an encumbrance, but large enough to be easily read and contain notes and references. In fact, this edition includes a Cyclopedic Concordance packed with all sorts of information -- various photos, a genealogical chart of the patriarchs, and index of Old Testament quotations in the New Testament, maps, and much more. Some people find this sort of thing essential. I always imagine people busying themselves with the back matter forty-five minutes into a ninety-minute sermon.

In the photos, you'll note an imperfection that's sometimes seen on Cambridge Bibles, too. The page edges are a little wavy -- in fact, if you run a fingertip along the top or bottom, you can feel the ripple. My first Cambridge Bible, a wide-margin in Berkshire leather, had the same 'feature,' only it resembled a troubled ocean and always made me think, "Surf's up!" Does it bother me? No. Your mileage may vary.

THE OXFORD GENE
What does bother me, though, is just how black the blackface type is. It's downright Gothic black, reminiscent of old German type, so black that if I go outside on a clear day and open it up, astronauts in orbit can read over my shoulder. Now if you're one of those people who thinks the problem with Bibles today is the print's too small and too narrow, and they don't use enough ink on the page, you're going to love this thing. To me, it's like reading page after page of text highlighted in bold, or maybe all-caps.

I have only myself to blame. This edition is clearly labeled "blackface," and the accompanying text samples live up to the name. But I'd never had any experience with an edition like this before so I didn't realize how hard it would be to read. Perhaps the darkness alone isn't the issue -- it's the perfect storm of blackface type, an old-fashioned font, and the self-pronouncing feature that invariably renders Jesus as Je'-sus (only with different accents over the e, s, and u so that each is voiced correctly). When I think that someone had to go through the entire Bible spelling all the proper names phonetically, I get a headache. Just think: in the old days, they'd go to that amount of trouble, whereas now you have to whine for years on end to get a simple single-column text setting!

In the final analysis, you'll either love it or hate it. An old school traditionalist with iffy eyesight will find the Brevier Blackface the ultimate reference work. For everyday use, it's a bit much if you ask me. It's a shame, though, because the size is excellent and the binding bespeaks quality, old school tradition in the best sense. If you're looking at R. L. Allan and you want a KJV, this wouldn't be my first recommendation. Still, I can't say I regret buying it. Picky as I am, I still break it out from time to time ... and enjoy.

EXTRA PHOTOS:

Comments

[matt]

These pictures are great!

I agree that self-pronouncing features are annoying. While some may like them it drives me crazy when I am reading.

[PDS]

Wow. Now that is some bold type. Thanks for the review Mark!

The full yap has always fascinated me. I've never owned or seen one in person...but I think it's cool.

[J. Mark Bertrand]

Matt -- I'm glad you like the pictures. I've just started hosting them at Flickr, so when you click on the ones at the bottom (and all future ones), you can see much larger resolution images than before. My shortcomings as a photographer will be highlighted, but readers will be able to get much better detail than before.

Paul -- I loved the look of full yapp, but when I first experienced it I was a little thrown. Access to the page is a little different, since that lip of leather is in the way. Once I got used to it, though, I was hooked.

[Brian]

Your "shortcomings" as a photographer are far from obvious Mark, I have some experience, access to over the top tools, and I would be hard pressed to do any better. I was happy to link to you at Flickr!

[J. Mark Bertrand]

You're too kind, Brian. :)

[PDS]

Will have to check one of the full yaps out one day...

You're doing a wonderful job with this site. Keep up the great work.

[Nathan]

Just some quick feedback; I much prefer your links to flickr over your previous format.

[KJVcollector]

A note on the Longprimer vs. the Brevier Blackface: My wife was kind enough the purchase a Longprimer for me for Christmas this year (I had had "any Oxford Reference from Allan" on my wish list for a long time), and, while it's a superb Bible, I wish I had looked more carefully at the text samples on Allan's web site. Aside from not minding self-pronouncing text, I really prefer having the English words added by the KJV translators in italics, which the Longprimer doesn't have but, I believe, the Blackface does.

The Bible that started my collection (now ~125?) a few years back was a used Oxford Garnet plain-text KJV found in a bookstore. It has a leather-lined goatskin cover described as "Marrakesh Persian - Nylon Sewn" on the inside and, in spite of a sad "bald" patch in one corner and a few permanent indentations, is quite handsome. As I began reading from the bible, however, I felt something was missing, which I soon realized was the lack of italics for the added words. I'd never seen a KJV without this, so I took it for granted that the italics would always be there. Apparently, however, Oxford has had more than one KJV printing without this feature.

Which, if course, won't be an issue for most. I don't mean to promote a need for the italics; rather, it just illustrates the need to be careful fo the details when shopping.

[James Thompson]

Mark,

Thanks for your comments. I may in fact purchase this Bible after reading your comments and those of Nathan, who indicated the Longprimer (my original leanings) doesn't use italics for "added" words. I'm sort of "old school" and appreciate that characteristic too. Can you confirm that the Brevier Blackface italicizes added words? And since my eyes are aging the blackface type might not be such a bother; font size and readability are my main concerns now-a-days.

[J. Mark Bertrand]

James -- I just double-checked and it appears that the Brevier Blackface does italicize the words the translators supplied.

[Kevin Maguire]

James, Allans also do a Brevier Clarendon Reference Bible kjv which is the same size as the Blackface and the translaters additional words are in italic.This is a very nice Bible and I find the text very easy to read ,my sight is not what it once was but I have no problem with this one.Just to fill you in, on the day that I bought this Bible I had both the blackface and the clarendon in my hand and the clarendon was easyier to read.I think the difference is that there is slightly more of a space between the lines. As Mark says the black text is very very dark and with the white paper and the close spacing the text is not that easy read. On the day that I made my decision other people that were with me felt the same,and I would have been one of those people who would have always went for a dark text.

[Kevin Maguire]

James, Allans also do a Brevier Clarendon Reference Bible kjv which is the same size as the Blackface and the translaters additional words are in italic.This is a very nice Bible and I find the text very easy to read ,my sight is not what it once was but I have no problem with this one.Just to fill you in, on the day that I bought this Bible I had both the blackface and the clarendon in my hand and the clarendon was easyier to read.I think the difference is that there is slightly more of a space between the lines. As Mark says the black text is very very dark and with the white paper and the close spacing the text is not that easy read. On the day that I made my decision other people that were with me felt the same,and I would have been one of those people who would have always went for a dark text.

[Scott Davis]

Mark,
Have you any opinions on the Holman Christian Standard Bible? I have been an ESV freak for years, but the HCSB has certainly gotten my attention with its fresh renderings of the original languages and it's aesthetic beauty in its type and format. I find myself going back and forth between the two translations now.

Any idea if R.L. Allans is considering a HCSB in one of their premier bindings?

Great blogsite. Glad I ran across it. God bless!

Scott Davis, RN
Missouri

[Kevin]

I was very much interested in the Long Primer. Is there a site for the U.S? I have bought several Bibles and never seem to be satisfied. Thanks -Kevin

[Jake]

Kevin,

I have the Longprimer and I love it, there is only one place I know that you can order R L Allen's in the US, EvangelicalBible.com. I ordered mine through R L Allen's and I prefer to deal with them directly, they are a breeze to work with. I checked the pricing and it's exactly the same when ordering direct from Allen's or through Evangelical Bible, they both include cost of shipping in the price, so you won't save any money ordering with the US distributor. The shipping method R L Allen uses is exceptionally fast, I received my order in less than a week here in Arizona.

[Kenneth Dismukes]

I just got the Blackface in the mail today direct from R.L. Allan. I sent the Longprimer back to exchange it for the Blackface, because some pages in the Longprimer were printed more faintly than others. The difference was quite noticeable on one particular faintly printed page which faced a more darkly printed page. I have now had the Blackface, Longprimer, and Clarendon. I still have the Clarendon.

The highland goatskin full yapp binding is the best I have ever seen in about 35 years of buying a number of Bibles. R.L. Allan's customer service is also excellent. They ship by airmail from Scotland and it arrives in about a week.

Unfortunately the print quality on this Blackface is also not that great. Some pages are printed more faintly than others, sometimes there is even a contrast on the same page. It clearly says on the front page that it is the Blackface, but it's hard to believe it's the same Bible that was reviewed above. Definitely no astronauts can read this one. The type is thinner and generally less dark than the Clarendon (though on some pages it might be about equally dark). The Blackface font also appears to me to be slightly smaller than the Clarendon. The Blackface gets 26 verses on the first page of Genesis while the Clarendon gets 22 verses. I was hoping the Blackface would be bolder and darker than the Clarendon, based on the review above and the review of the Clarendon.

I'm not familiar with modern printing technology. Do modern Bible printers typically run their machines until they are almost out of toner before replacing it, or is there some other explanation? Is it the India paper that poses a special challenge? It bothers me that they can't get this right. This seems to be true of most all Bibles in general that I have bought through the years. It bothers me even more when this kind of print quality is put into a very expensive, quality binding like this one. Part of the purpose of my comments is to inspire them to greater quality control over their printing, since they already make the best bindings in the world.

The Clarendon I received had by far the best print quality, compared to the Longprimer and Blackface. I am quite satisfied with it.

The Blackface and Clarendon were both printed in the Netherlands by the same company. I think the Longprimer was printed in England.

I'm probably not going to send the Blackface back. It costs about $25 to send it back and I'm afraid I would just get another one that is just as bad or worse in terms of print quality.

Mark, you said "When I think that someone had to go through the entire Bible spelling all the proper names phonetically, I get a headache." I looked inside on page 4 and found that the man who did this was Henry A. Redpath. This man is perhaps best known for being a co-author of the Concordance to the Septuagint. I did a bit of searching and found a book excerpt (from History of New Testament Research) which stated that Redpath lived 1848-1908. This same reference stated that Edwin Hatch (1835-1889) died when he was only halfway through doing the Concordance, and that Redpath finished the other half. The pronunciations in the Blackface don't bother me. Not even the pronunciation for Jesus.

The Blackface is the only one of the three Bibles I received that has the cyclopedic concordance, with a number of black and white photographs. My version of the Clarendon did not have this, but only a concordance. Allan's website also states that the Clarendon has a concordance, without mentioning a cyclopedic concordance.

One other interesting feature of the Blackface is that it counts all the chapters of the Bible in sequential order from Genesis to Revelation, for example, showing that the 1st chapter of Matthew is the 930th chapter in the Bible, and showing that the 22nd chapter of Revelation is the 1189th chapter in the Bible.

[Jeff Seymour]

Kenneth, only the Clarendon bibles with a "C" after their number have the cyclopedic concordance. All of the Blackface have it, the Longprimer doesn't.

[Evagelist Brian McClurg]

I just got a new one and they have improved by leaps and bounds. Now they have a perfect tone of ink, notebook lined pages in the back, and the full and I mean full yapp Leather in (highland goatskin). This Bible is outstanding compared to the old blackface I have. They went the extra mile or even two with quality. The highland goatskin now is better than before, Its evident they treat it with special oils now when they didn't before. I have their new Long primer too and it does not seem to line up to this Bible. Plus the Paper (India) has been improved to the point it feels like silk rather than paper (silk to the Blind mans touch). Really it would fool somebody by just the touch. Once again I'm not bragging but I've had just about all top quality KJV Bibles you can find and have seen, felt, and proved there endurance and this one here, I believe will be a long lasting enduring Bible. As I have said before the Champ still is Local Church Bible Publishers as for as taking a beating and still shine as supreme. Oh Mark remember you said you got Cape Levant Morocco leather which believe it or not is a very tough leather but now you can get it in highland or Cape Levant Morocco. Either one is a great Leather but I prefer the Highland Goat because the yapp covers more.
God Bless

[Howie]

A comment about the printing of the R. L. Allan's Oxford Brevier Blackface Reference Edition... I'm a graphic designer and have had the opportunity of working for a printing company that I believe uses printing presses similar to what RL Allan would have. If I am correct, Allen (or whoever is printing this specific Bible) uses a sheet fed press which does not use toner like a laser printer. It uses ink. Each sheet is fed through the press and ink rolls onto the paper from a plate which gets "inked" ... it's pretty neat... the "technology" is very old and takes a good press operator to keep even ink coverage on every page. With these Bibles you really are getting a work of art, each one will be different.

Howie

[Kenneth Dismukes]

Thanks, Howie, for helping me understand how the printing process works for Bibles.

About 5 years ago, I was in the Prestonwood Baptist book store. They had about 7 copies of the Thomas Nelson Signature NKJV and they were boxed in such a way that I could examine each one. I bought the only one that I thought had a fairly decent (though not perfect) print job, in terms of faintness of print here and there. It would be nice to find a manufacturer who consistently combines a very high quality print job with a very high quality binding.

[Howie]

Well, I ordered the "R. L. Allan's Oxford Brevier Blackface Reference Edition" a week ago and now I have it. It's just sitting there on my desk with its back turned to me. The Leather Smells great. The first thing I did after carefully opening the box was smell it. My family raised goats when I was little and Goat Skin Leather smells much different than Goat hair. But as weird as it sounds I like each smell. Now the appearance of this bible brings back to memory any time I saw an older man with his Bible. I'm not sure if it's because I saw a lot of old men reading Bibles that looked like this or because "modern" Bibles look nothing like this thing. The Type, for a Bible on the smaller side, is pretty readable. The type size is good, however I would still like something even bolder and darker. I noticed the red dye under the Gold on the page edges has some excessive bleeding into the page, but it sorta adds a bit of "character" or "value" to this Bible. I made a comment above about how the printing happens and this Bible has many many imperfect areas of type where the ink looks "cracked" or dark in some areas and lighter in others. I know I'm more critical of these types of things since I create files for printing and work for a printing company so others may not notice what I have. My final thoughts are that this is a great Bible. And it smells good too!

Howie

[Igor]

Seems to be exactly what I want: sawn-binding, handy size, old-looking typeface, self-pronouncing text (I do like it!). Will probably order it as soon as I can (or when I think I can) afford it. But what about paper (it's India one, right?)? Is it as thin as in Pitt-Minion Reference Bibles?

[robert anderson]

while I waiting for my Allan's ESV1 BR Brown in highland goatskin to arrive from Scotland, I looked at the "R. L. Allan's" Oxford Brevier Blackface Reference Edition Bible in the bookstore. It is a nice Bible. I found the print to be nice and dark, but a little heavy after reading in the Bible, as I sipped on my cappuccino. The leather was nice enough and the Bible seemed to be well bound, but it was by for not the nicest Bible that I have ever held....and I do have other Oxford Bibles and Cambridge Bibles. Don't get me wrong, it is a nice Bible, but I just wasn't overly impressed. The goatskin IS NOT the same quality as the goatskin used on my Allan's ESV1 BR. In fact, after looking at the "Allan's" Oxford Brevier Blackface Reference Edition Bible, I was having second thought about the Allan's ESV 1BR that I had ordered from Scotland. BUT, when my Allan's ESV1 arrived, it met my expectations and exceeded them. It is by far the nicest bound Bible that I have ever held in my hands. WOW! is all I can say. It is a little pricey, but it is a beautiful Bible. It would make a very nice gift.

[robert anderson]

Did I say how soft and supple the goarskin binding is on the Allan's ESV1 BR? This Bible has the softest goatskin i have ever felt. The "R. L. Allan's" Oxford Brevier Blackface Reference Edition Bible nor the Cambridge Pitt-Minion have that same soft highland goatskin leather.

[Michael Swoveland]

I just bought a copy of the Oxford Brevier Blackface that was published by Oxford University Press in Great Britain, it is NOT an Allan's edition. I do not believe these are in print any longer, at least I can't find it in the current Oxford catalog or on Amazon.com. It comes in a red box that has an engraving of Oxford University as it looked in the 1700s. I believe this one was printed in 1996.

It is bound in black French Morocco leather that is suprisingly soft, in fact it is softer than a Cambridge Concord that I have in calfskin. I am also suprised that such a small Bible will lay open at any point from Genesis 1 to the maps at the back, something my Cambridge Concord would never do. It also has the (very cool) Cyclopedic Concordance in the back.

While it is a very handy size, and the size of the Scripture text is fine, many of the notes and cross references are very small and hard to read and I have better than 20/20 vision. For someone with less than perfect eyesight the type in this Bible may be too small to be useful. One more word on the type, it is very old fashioned looking. To me it looks like something you would have found it you had bought a new Bible in about 1890-1910, I find this quaint and pleasant, but if you like a more modern typeface this Bible may not be for you.