314. [AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817).] Pride and Prejudice: a Novel in Three Volumes. London: T. Egerton, 1813. 3 volumes, 12mo. Half-titles. Contemporary dark brown sprinkled calf, brown endpapers, gilt volume numbers to spine, green morocco gilt lettering pieces to style, with “Charleton” gilt-stamped to upper cover; half morocco folding case. Condition: intermittent foxing; rebacked preserving original spines, a little wear to extremities, exposure to several corners, renewed lettering labels. Provenance: Frida Best (bookplate); Susan Carnegie? with intriguing provenance of an early feminist author.

It is tempting to identify the ownership stamp with Charleton House, Montrose, the home, from her marriage in 1769 until her death in 1821 of the feminist writer and philanthropist Susan Carnegie: “…she learned to challenge the idea that women were intellectually less able than men, choosing instead to explain discrepancies in terms of women’s educational opportunities and their general treatment in a patriarchal society. Certainly in her correspondence Susan was fearless in drawing attention to a lack of respect or of rudeness on the part of male writers. Prior to her marriage to George Carnegie of Pitarrow (1726-1799), she acknowledged her future husband’s right to command her, but hoped ‘that he never will have [the] occasion or inclination to exercise it’. (Oxford DNB). On her death the estate passed to her grandson George Carnegie Fullerton, poet and sportsman. His extravagances resulted his sale of the three Ayrshire properties, and another other volume with this ownership stamp, a copy of Charles Emmanuel de Warnery’s Remarks on Cavalry, 1798, sold at Bonham’s in 2003.
First edition. Gilson 3; Grolier Hundred 69; Keynes 3; Sadleir 62b.

est. $50,000 – $70,000

[from the Bloomsbury Auctions Catalogue.  “Fine Books & Manuscripts, Literature and Americana” –  New York,  Sale June 23, 2009.  See the Bloomsbury website for more information on the sale.]