Humble Lamb Bibles – KJV Lion Reference “refreshed” edition.

An introductory review: The two featured editions are the Storm Gray Lion with a dark blue interior and the Olive Slate Lion with a light gray interior.

First impressions:
From the materials to the build quality these editions exude quality and are very much on par with editions produced in Europe. The bindings on both editions are immaculate in construction and appearance and I’ve yet to find a flaw. The bindings are of medium thickness and are stamped inside the back covers as Meritian Goatskin and Individually Handcrafted. The covers are leather lined, and the interior leather has a minimal pebble grain.

The refreshed editions have a semi-yapp, in other words, the leather extends well past the book block. The ends of the leather are just shy of touching, and in my opinion the extension of the yapp is perfect, not too much, not too little. The additional yapp protects the art gilt page edges, and the extra leather just gives the Bible a more secure feeling in the hand.

The bindings are soft and very flexible right out of the box. The Storm gray edition has a duller appearance and feel with a slightly more pronounced grain than the Olive edition. Some variance of the grain is to be expected with natural hides. The editions have perimeter stitching, which is perfectly executed.

I’m impressed with the level of consistency of the construction on these two editions.   The art gilt is evenly applied, the colors are dark and bright, and are some of the best that I’ve seen.

The head and tail bands are striped white and blue, and each edition has three ribbons. The ribbons are 10mm in width and they are satin and smooth to the touch. The ribbons are spaced evenly apart under the headbands and protrude about 3.5 inches past the end of the book block.

Subtle details: some other nice touches are the four raised spine hubs with “The Word Of God” stamped in gold foil between the 2nd and 3rd hub.

The gold stamping on the spines appears lightly stamped, and inside the front cover at the top left-hand corner is stamped LION and at the bottom is stamped Humble Lamb.

A single gold foil line is applied evenly on the inside cover around the perimeter and on the outer binding there’s a blank tooled line highlighting the edges of the textblock. There is no imprinting on the front cover but on the back of the Bible at the bottom is a blank stamped Lion which is a nice touch.

Inside: At the front – XI. Intro to Gustave Dore, XIII. Preface to the KJV LION, XV. Preface to the KJV, XVII. Translator to the Readers, and XXXIII. How to Use.

At the back – pg. 1677, a 90-page Dictionary Concordance with a three-column layout and at pg. 1769, 14 colored maps.

Dimensions: The size of the Lion is very similar to the Schuyler Quentel, the textblock of the Lion measures 9” x  6” x  1-3/16ths.

The layout is also very reminiscent of the Schuyler Quentel. Although, unlike the Quentel which has a paragraph layout, the Lion is a verse-by-verse edition. It’s basically a modern setting of a classic layout. It’s a two-column verse by verse layout with the references set at the bottom of the page. Throughout the text are subject/topic headings to help you better navigate throughout portions of scripture. The first letter of each word in every chapter is enlarged and incased in a blue square, a drop cap. The blue is dark and bright and is an attractive feature.

The chapter numbers are printed in blue as well as the words of Christ and the paragraphs are marked by blue paragraph markers. The blue print is just dark and bright enough to stand out without being under or overwhelming, and I find the blue very easy on the eyes.

  The references are set in four columns and there’s a thin blue horizontal line separating the references from the main text. The line also indicates the chapter range allowing the reader to quickly identify the location of the references. Beneath the references at the very bottom of the page are 750 Archaic word definitions. The main font is listed as Milo Sans 11pt. and the references appear to be more in the 7pt. range. I do find the super script letters for the references at the bottom of the page difficult to make out.

The paper I believe is European and is listed as 36gsm, the paper has a nice color, and it’s smooth, delicate, and premium in feel.  All of the printing is nice, crisp, and consistent throughout.

Relevantly placed throughout the Bible are 66 black and white illustrations by Gustave Dore.

Critique: The reference suite and word definitions could stand to be a size larger. Although the margin space has been increased in the refreshed edition, I’d still prefer a little more margin space for notes. As for the drop caps, I find them to be a little underwhelming in design, for a KJV edition one would expect something a little more regal. Some poetic settings would make for a nice touch, and I would also like to see the Gustave Dore’ illustrations printed on a heavier stock paper. Overall, the LION is a very well-constructed Bible using quality materials, and I find that these editions are on the same level as the Bibles produced by R.L. Allan, Cambridge, and Schuyler.