The bindings of John Ratcliff (fl. 1661-1682) represent the earliest identifiable bindings of Colonial New England. The attribution of specific tools and subsequent styles to the work of Ratcliff derives from two blind-tooled commonplace books of Samuel Sewall (1652-1730). Both have dated inscriptions that record Ratcliff as the binder. Book History literature suggests that Ratcliff, who came to America with the charge of binding copies of the 1663 Eliot Indian Bible, returned to England around 1680, and that his binding tools then passed into the hands of American binder Edmund Ranger.

In 1928, Thomas J. Holmes published an examination of bindings, "The BookBindings of John Ratcliff and Edmund Range," in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. The following year, the Proceedings published Holmes's "Additional Notes on Ratcliff and Ranger Bindings." The article concluded with an additional survey conducted by William G. Land, "Further Notes on Ratcliff and Ranger Bindings," highlighting relevant bindings found in the Connecticut Historical Society.

In total, the American Antiquarian Society and Connecticut Historical Society surveys conducted by Holmes and Land identified seventeen bindings believed to be the work of either John Ratcliff or Edmund Ranger. In addition, Holmes publications devoted significant exploration to the question of determining which binder is represented by the 'level of quality' of the binding work. The attribution of bindings between Ratcliff or Ranger is problematic. The main assumption, that Ratcliff returned to England in 1680, is speculative and unsupported by biographical documentation.

The active census information below extends Holmes and Land's findings to 42 copies with no attempt made to distinguish between the work of Ratcliff or Ranger. While the data focuses on two named binders and their identifiable tools and bindings, my emphasis is not the craft of binding. The work, rather, is part of a broader exploration into the bookselling trade and production of books in seventeenth-century Colonial New England.