THE FIRST PAGE SAYS “DILIGENTLY COMPOSED AND REVISED BY HIS MAJESTY’S SPECIAL COMMAND.” NO JOKE. Book collector Phillip Kaveny owns Hedgehog & Otter Books in Eau Claire’s Banbury Place.

    Just because a book is old doesn’t mean it’s valuable.

Fortunately for Phillip Kaveny, the Bible he recently acquired from a close friend is not merely 250 years old, but happens to be a First Edition King James Bible, commissioned by His Royal Majesty for use on Anglican altars.

Kaveny speculates it was shipped from England during the American Revolution to help spread the king’s religion to the colonies. The 20-by-12 inch, 35-pound colossus was printed in 1763 by John Baskverville himself – the inventor of the handsome typeface of the same name.

Since the book’s pages are crafted from rags and old clothing, they have a remarkable lifespan compared to those printed on the now-standard wood-pulp-and-acid mixture. Gold leaf – recognized back then as a natural insect repellant – still gilds each page. Even more surprising and lucky: the 575 leaves were never re-bound, the black leather cover never replaced. Kaveny explains that restoring a book cannot increase its exchange value, only its utility.

“It just has that timeless, luminescent quality,” says Kaveny, who has been collecting books for about 30 years. Up until now, Kaveny had adhered to the bookselling adage that, “there’s nothing more worthless than old Bibles.”

Kaveny’s friend Don Goodearl, a self-described “history and paper nut” says the Bible is probably worth up to $11,500. And to think –before he did his homework on the antique, Kaveny almost turned around and sold it for $300.