This intimate prayer book binding was created for the politician and architectural pundit, Sir Alexander James Beresford Beresford Hope, one of William Burges’s leading patrons. It is mounted in ivory and studded with silver-gilt Tudor rosettes with jewel-like enamelling. The central rosette is embellished with a fantastical beast and the others are personalized with the initials A H and I H. The binding has two clasps, each in the form of a stylized dragon with a shield bearing the Hope coat of arms and family motto.