About 800 printed pages in Arabic. Fine 'India' paper. Lithographed text and marginal decoration within ruled borders. Complete with original' tortoise-shell' plastic magnifier attached by a silk woven thread and original decorated paper covered hinged box. A charming miniature Qur’an (3.8 x 2.5 cm) in excellent condition, preserved in its original gilt binding and cardboard box with accompanying magnifying glass still attached. With a richly decorated opening double page frontispiece. Fully vowelized text set in a frame, verse separators, sura headings and section markers in the margins printed in black throughout. Unpaginated. An excellent example. These miniature Qurans were printed at the press of Hans Steinbrener since the early 1900s; with the new millennium, the shop closed down and ceased production. These miniature editions of the Qur’an, with their elaborate gilt leather bindings and attached magnifying glass, count among the finest examples of their kind and as masterpieces of Bohemian printing and craftsmanship. "The firm advertised itself as the continent's largest producer of artistic bindings for prayer books and the largest publisher of prayer books [...] This publisher supplied a market ranging from Manila to New York" (Marija Dalbello, "Franz Josef's Time Machine: Images of Modernity in the Era of Mechanical Photoreproduction", in: Book History, Vol. 5 [2002], pp. 67-103). " All edges gilt. Original marbled endpapers. 24 x 34 mm. Original navy blue calf with gilt curlicue decoration; original matching strap with silver-coloured fastener.