The marvelous Oxford India paper was first introduced in 1875. Since then it has revolutionized the Bible and prayer book trade, and it is now used for all the more popular devotional books throughout the world.
In the year 1841 an Oxford graduate is said to have brought home from the far East a small fold of extremely thin paper, which was manifestly more opaque and tough for its substance than any paper then manufactured in Europe. He presented it to the Clarendon Press.
The late Mr. Thomas Coombe, who had only recently been appointed printer to the University, found it to be just sufficient for twenty-four copies of the smallest Bible then in existence— diamond 24mo— and printed an edition of that number which bore the date 1842. The books were barely a third of the usual thickness, and although as much as $100 apiece was offered they were presented to the queen and other distinguished persons.
