Ames says that Grafton and Whitchurch continued friends and partners for many years, but it is a fact, as Dibdin points out, that while up to 1541 their names appear together upon title-pages, after that date there are usually two issues of each work, part having Grafton's name in the imprint, and part Whitchurch's. This is true of the Cranmer Bible, and the same thing is found in connection with the Prayer Book. It is not known whether the separation is due to some economic arrangement agreeable to both printers, or whether they may have quarreled. To the names of these two printers of the first edition, however, should be added another, that of John Oswen of Worcester, formerly of Ipswich, who by virtue of a license from Edward VI was printer of "every kind of book, or books, set forth by us, concerning the service to be used in churches, ministration of the sacraments, and instruction of our subjects of the Principality of Wales, and marches thereunto belonging ... for seven years, prohibiting all other persons whatsoever from printing the same."
All issues of this edition differ more or less in general style and appearance. The most marked dissimilarity in the volumes issued by the London printers lies in the special woodcut title-page used by each. Grafton's beautiful border (repeated for "A Table" and "Kalendar") shows, above a Doric frieze supported by pilasters, a view of the Council Chamber with King Edward, surrounded by his advisers, and at the bottom the printer's punning mark, on a shield upheld by two angels. It is as fine a piece of work as anything of the period. Grafton afterward used the same border for his edition of A Concordance of the Bible, printed in 1550. The Whitchurch copies have a woodcut border very similar in character to those in use twenty years later, which have the appearance of being related to some of the borders drawn for Plantin. This border consists of caryatids representing Roman soldiers with shields, supporting the royal coat-of-arms, and below, satyrs and loves with another coat-of-arms in a cartouche, and the initial E in a tablet on one side, and W on the other.
The earliest known copy printed by Oswen, a quarto, has a colophon which reads:
At Worceter by
| Jhon Oſwen.
They be also to ſell at Shreweſburye. | (Imprinted the xxiiii. day of May. | Anno. M.D.XLIV. The title is framed by a border made up of five woodcut panels, carelessly arranged; and some of the initial letters are ornamented.