Jane Austen on the Block! ~ The RING and the Books…

July 10, 2012July 11, 2012 BookLady DebLeave a comment

An exciting day in Austen-Land! The much-touted Ring is up for auction!, as well as first editions of five of Austen’s novels [wherever did the Sense and Sensibility end up?] – here are the details from Sotheby’s Sale No. L12404 English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations – London | 10 July 2012 – I will report later today the results… See the results in red below – to include buyer’s premium…..

Lot 59: Austen, Jane. GOLD AND GEM SET RING

ESTIMATE: 20,000 – 30,000 GBP Sold for £152,450 (about $236,298.)- also learned that the ring is actually natural turquoise not the odontalite as noted in the catalogue. The bidding was quite fun to watch – all quite dramatic as the auctioneer baited the bidders in room, on the telephone and the internet to keep the bidding going… [update 2: “a battle between eight bidders … was eventually bought by an anonymous private collector over the phone, the auction house said” (from Reuters.com)]

set with a cabochon blue stone, natural turquoise, size K½ with sizing band, once belonging to Jane Austen, in a contemporary jeweller’s box (“T. West | Goldsmith | Ludgate Street | near St Paul’s”)

[with:] autograph note signed by Eleanor Austen, to her niece Caroline Austen, “My dear Caroline. The enclosed Ring once belonged to your Aunt Jane. It was given to me by your Aunt Cassandra as soon as she knew that I was engaged to your Uncle. I bequeath it to you. God bless you!”, 1 page, November 1863, with address panel on verso and remains of black wax seal impression, fold tears; also with three further notes by Mary Dorothy Austen-Leigh detailing the ring’s later provenance, 5 pages, 1935-1962

[more detailed provenance here: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/english-literature-history-childrens-books-and-illustrations/lot.59.html – click on “catalogue notes”]
Lot 55: Austen, Jane. MANSFIELD PARK: A NOVEL. EGERTON, 1814

ESTIMATE: 3,000 – 5,000 GBP Sold for £5250 (about $8,138.)

12mo (174 x 102mm.), first edition, 3 volumes, without half-titles, nineteenth-century half calf, marbled boards, some spotting and browning, some gatherings proud, recent expert repairs to binding and joints.

Lot 56: Austen Jane. NORTHANGER ABBEY: AND PERSUASIAN…WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR, JOHN MURRAY 1818

ESTIMATE: 2,500 – 3,500 GBP Sold for £4000 (about $6200.)

12mo (175 x 102mm.), 4 volumes, first edition, watermarks, without half-titles, nineteenth-century half calf, marbled boards,, some slight staining to edges of some leaves, browning and spotting, recent expert repairs to joints and spines, some edge-wear. Northanger Abbey was completed in 1798 or 1799, and then substantially revised over time. Persuasion, a more gentle satire of manners, was written between 1815 and 1816. The novels were published posthumously in this tandem edition of 1,750 copies.

Lot 57: Austen, Jane. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: A NOVEL. LONDON:G. SIDNEY FOR T. EGERTON, 1813.

ESTIMATE: 20,000 – 30,000 GBP Sold for £22,500 (about $34,875.)

12mo (174 x 102mm.), 3 volumes, first edition, watermarks, without half-titles and advertisements, nineteenth-century half calf, marbled boards, B12 of volume 1 crudely opened and slightly creased, some gatherings proud, some spotting, staining and browning to text, volumes 1 and 3 re-backed, some recent expert repairs to binding and joints, some edge-wear.

Lot 58: Austen, Jane. EMMA: A NOVEL. C. ROWORTH FOR JOHN MURRAY, 1816.

ESTIMATE: 10,000 – 15,000 GBP UNSOLD – bidding went to £7500

12mo (172 x 103mm.), first edition, without half-titles, nineteenth-century half calf, marbled boards, some creases at edges of some leaves, some spotting and browning, some gatherings proud, volume 1 re-backed, recent expert repairs to binding and joints, some edge-wear.

[All titles have the bookplate of Bridget Mary McEwen.]

Further Reading about The Ring:

The Guardian, 6 July 2012: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/06/jane-austen-ring-for-auction

Diana B. at Austen Authors: http://austenauthors.net/jane-austens-ring

Julie W. at Austenonly: http://austenonly.com/2012/06/21/first-editions-and-jane-austens-ring-a-bumper-austen-sale-at-sothebys-on-july-10th/

[and please note at the end of this post wherein Deirdre Le Faye weighs in on the ring’s provenance – the date of the note from Eleanor Austen as noted in the printed catalogue is incorrect … and now corrected in the online version]

[Text and image from the Sotheby’s catalogue]

@2012 by Jane Austen in Vermont

Great Britain - History · London

A Little History of Bedford Square: Todd Longstaffe-Gowan on the ‘superior’ central London square

July 9, 2012July 9, 2012 BookLady DebLeave a comment

A Little History of Bedford Square: Todd Longstaffe-Gowan on the ‘superior’ central London square.

Books · Jane Austen · Literature

Jane Austen and her “Best Literary Sex Scene”

July 7, 2012 BookLady Deb7 Comments

It seems that on almost a daily basis Jane Austen makes some list or other. Yesterday, The Guardian offered up a list of the “Best Literary Sex Scenes: Writers’ Favourites” and there she is yet again, despite claims that there is no sex in Austen – read here what Howard Jacobson (his The Finkler Question won the 2010 Man Booker Prize) has to say:

Softcore porn is the literary equivalent of those feathery wimp-whips and talcum’d cufflinks you see in the windows of sex toy shops. If you’re going to torture your lover, at least break the skin, I say. You would expect me, therefore, to chose the scene I find most erotic from the pages of De Sade or Bataille. But as far as writing goes, the best sex is the most implicit. So I nominate the scene in Persuasion in which Captain Wentworth wordlessly, and with none of their past grievous history resolved, assists a fatigued Anne Elliot into a carriage. There is no overt sexuality, no titillatory play with power and dependence – he helps her in and that’s that. “Yes – he had done it. She was in the carriage and felt that he had placed her there, that his will and his hands had done it.” Anne might tell herself that the kindness proceeds from what remains of “former sentiment”, but Wentworth’s hands have been on her body, and we never doubt that it’s her body that receives the shock of the contact as much as her mind.

I couldn’t agree more … what might your favorite sex scene in Jane Austen be?

You can read about the other titles and scenes here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/06/best-literary-sex-scenes-writers-favourites

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And also check out John Mullan’s latest “10 of the Best” – Jane Austen appears on most of his lists it seems! this week is about “wills” and of course, what would be the plot of Sense and Sensibility without that pesky will:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/06/john-mullan-ten-of-best-wills

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. The novel is shaped by a will. Henry Dashwood’s uncle leaves his wealth not to his own family, but to his son by a previous marriage and a four-year-old grandson. His wife and daughters, who have attended on the old man for years, are disinherited in favour of a child who has gained his affections by “an imperfect articulation, an earnest desire of having his own way, many cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise”.