July 21, 2016 by BookLady Deb

Jane Austen and Great Bookham ~ Guest Post by Tony Grant

Jane Austen and Great Bookham
by Tony Grant

Cassandra Leigh Austen

Cassandra Leigh was born on September 26^th 1739 at Harpsden in Oxfordshire. She was the third of four children born to Thomas Leigh and Jane Walker. She had an older brother James and an older sister Jane and a younger brother Thomas. Her father’s brother, Theophilus Leigh, master of Baliol College Oxford, had a number of children also, including two daughters named Mary and Cassandra. This meant there were two Cassandra Leighs in the family. On April 26, 1764 George Austen, Proctor of St John’s College Oxford, and Thomas Leigh’s daughter Cassandra were married at St. Swithin’s Church in Bath, and just after that he became the Vicar of Steventon in Hampshire near Basingstoke. Theophilus Leigh’s daughter Cassandra married Samuel Cooke in June 1768. On the 13 April 1769, Samuel Cooke became the vicar of St Nicholas Church, Great Bookham, in Surrey.

George and Cassandra Austen had eight children, James, George, Edward, Henry, Cassandra, Francis, Jane and Charles. Jane was born 16 December 1775 at Steventon. She was to become the world renowned author Jane Austen.

Samuel and Cassandra Cooke had six children but only three survived: Theophilus Leigh Cooke, George Leigh Cooke and Mary Cooke. Anne and their other children with the same names as those who lived, Mary and Theophilus, all died in infancy and their burials are recorded in the St Nicholas parish register.

St Nicholas Church, Great Bookham – c2016 Tony Grant

Throughout Jane Austen’s letters there are numerous references to aunts, uncles and cousins. She had an extensive family. There were the Leighs of Adelstrop, the Leighs of Stoneleigh Abbey, the Brydges, the Turners, as well as the Cookes of Great Bookham in Surrey. Jane, her sister Cassandra, her brothers and her mother corresponded and visited all of them at different times. Jane Austen spent a lot of time travelling. She was a great walker, whether it was along the lanes around Steventon, walking up onto the hills around Bath, walking from Chawton to Alton or to Farringdon. She took carriages and coaches to London and Bath, as well as many other places, stopping at inns and hostelries or family along the way. Great Bookham, where the Cookes lived, was about fifty miles from Chawton on route to London. Carriages travelled at an average speed of no more than eight miles an hour at best. To get to Great Bookham took Jane Austen and her family about five hours from either Steventon or Chawton. The countryside was beautiful, especially in summer when birds and wild life and wild flowers were seen in abundance. It occurs to me that Jane Austen could have been a great travel writer and observer of nature. Maybe she was a close observer of the natural world but she didn’t record it. Human interaction was her thing.

The High Street, Great Bookham – c2016 Tony Grant

Great Bookham is situated in Surrey a few miles from where I live. The area around Great Bookham inspired Jane Austen’s novels to quite an extent. It must have been while staying with her Aunt and Uncle and cousins Mary, George and Theophilus that she first visited Box Hill which is only a few miles away from where the Cookes lived . She probably used Great Bookham itself as well as Leatherhead and other villages and small towns nearby as sources to create Highbury, the fictitious town in her novel Emma. West Humble, a small settlement near the base of Box Hill, is reputed to be the small village outside of Dorking where the impoverished Watson family lives in Jane’s unfinished novel The Watsons. Of course Dorking itself, the setting for the Ball in The Watsons, is nearby too.

Jane’s Aunt, Mrs Cooke, was an aspiring writer herself. She wrote a novel called, Battleridge. In a letter to her sister Cassandra, Jane writes:

[Sat 27-Sun 28 Oct 1798]

Your letter was chaperoned here by one from Mrs Cooke, in which she says that ‘Battleridge’ is not to come out before January; & she is so little satisfied with Cawthorn’s dilatoriness that she never means to employ him again.

Jane, and perhaps the rest of the Austens, did not always enjoy the prospect of travelling to Great Bookham to visit their cousins:

[Tue 8 Wed 9 Jan 1799]

I assure you I dread the idea of going to Bookham as much as you do; but I am not without hopes that something may happen to prevent it; Theo has lost his Election at Baliol, & perhaps they may not be able to see company for some time. They talk of going to Bath in the Spring, & perhaps they may be overturned in their way down, & all laid up for the Summer.

Jane actually spent quite a lot of time with her relations at Bookham, up to a week or at times for longer stretches. Reading her references to the Cookes suggests that her aunt and uncle could be at times pompous and overbearing and perhaps liked to present a perfect view of life rather than a realistic one.

[Tues 10^th– Wed 11^th January 1809]

…Easter Monday, April 3^rd is the day we are to sleep that night at Alton, & be with our friends at Bookham the next, if they are then at home;- there we remain till the following Monday, & on Tuesday 11^th hope to be at Godmersham. If the Cookes are absent, we shall finish our journey on ye 5^th-These plans depend of course on the weather, but I hope there will be settled cold to delay us materially.

If Jane isn’t corresponding with her aunt and uncle she is writing to and receiving letters from her cousins. She does appear to get on well with her cousin Mary.

[Mon 30^th Jan 1809]

“…I had this pleasant news in a letter from Bookham last Thursday, but as the letter was from Mary instead of her mother you will guess her account was not equally good from home – Mrs Cooke has been confined to her bed some days by illness, but was then better& Mary wrote in confidence of her continuing to mend. I have desired to hear again soon.”

This extract does suggest that she gets the truth from Mary, and is suggestive of their warm relationship.

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After his marriage to Cassandra Leigh, Samuel Cooke brought his new wife to Great Bookham and was installed as vicar on the 13 April 1769. At first they lived in the rectory, situated across the road from the entrance to the grounds of St Nicholas Church in Church Road. This is now the post office:

The first Rectory, now post office – c2016 Tony Grant

They later moved to a new, larger rectory set back from the road, built on a plot next to and immediately north of theoriginal rectory. This was the rectory that Jane Austen would have visited and stayed at. It no longer exists (see painting above). On its site there are a row of shops:

Shops on site of old Rectory – c2016 Tony Grant

From old photographs of the rectory we can make comparisons with another building just south of the post office. The sash windows in the still existing building are exactly the same design as those of the demolished rectory. The chimney stack is very similar and the front door and portico look like a miniature version of the rectory entrance -the pillars and canopy of look as though they are of identical design and pattern. (It is interesting to note that a maid servant who would have served Jane while she stayed with her cousins was named Elizabeth Bennet!)

Rectory that Jane Austen knew

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Similar features to Rectory – c2016 Tony Grant

Before marrying Cassandra Leigh and becoming vicar of Great Bookham, Samuel was first educated at Blundell’s School in Devonshire and became Blundell’s Scholar at Balliol College Oxford. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1762 and gained his Master’s degree in 1764. From 1762 he was a Blundell Fellow at Balliol and became rector of Cottisford, Oxford. However, after settling in Great Bookham with Cassandra and producing a number of children he lived in Bookham for the rest of his life. He is, however, buried in Beckley in Oxford where his wife inherited a house through the Leigh family. He may have died while visiting Beckley.

Interior of St Nicholas, Great Bookham – c2016 Tony Grant

Frances Burney

There is another connection between Great Bookham and Jane Austen’s literary career. A writer who influenced Jane Austen was Frances Burney (Madame D’Arbley). She wrote two novels that we know Jane Austen read, Evelina and Cecelia, Jane a subscriber to the latter. At the time Jane was visiting her relations in Bookham and staying in Church Road to the west of St Nicholas Church. Burney and her husband, General Alexander D’Arbley, who fled to England after the rise to power in France of Maximillian Robespierre, were living in Fairfield Cottage, now named The Hermitage, a small cottage that still exists in Lower Road to the south of the church. Burney was introduced to the French emigres and D’Arbley by her sister Mrs Phillips – they met at Juniper Hall near Mickleham next to Box Hill. Jane Austen and Frances Burney must have been in close proximity on many occasions. Burney’s son Alexander was baptised in St Nicholas Church on April 11, 1795, by the Reverend Samuel Cooke. Burney herself mentions Mrs Cooke in a letter to her father:

[Bookham, June 15, 1795]

Mrs. Cooke, my excellent neighbour, came in Just now to read me a paragraph of a letter from Mrs. Leigh, of Oxfordshire, her sister. . . . After much of civility about the new work and its author, it finishes thus:—“Mr. Hastings I saw just now: I told him what was going forward; he gave a great jump, and exclaimed, ‘Well, then, now I can serve her, thank Heaven, and I will! I will write to Anderson to engage Scotland, and I will attack the East Indies myself!’” F. D’A.

Burney Cottage in Great Bookham – c2016 Tony Grant

Burney also mentions the Reverend Samuel Cooke in another letter to her father:

“ Mr Cooke tells me he longs for nothing so much as a conversation with you on the subject of Parish Psalm singing-he complains that the Methodists run away with the regular congregation from their superiority in vocal devotion.”

Claire Tomlin in her autobiography Jane Austen : A Life explains that Jane read Burney’s novels:.

“Cecilia…..Nearly a thousand pages long. It too must have filled many winter evenings by the fire at Steventon, and taken its toll on Jane’s eyes, which at times became tired and troublesome. She admired Burney’s comic monsters and her dialogue, but most what she learnt from her was negative; to be short, to sharpen, to vary, to exclude. Also, to prefer the imperfect and human heroine to the nearly flawless one. What Burney had demonstrated with her first book- concise as none of the later ones were- was that there was a public for social comedy finely observed through female eyes.”

View of St Nicholas from Fanny Burneys cottage

View of St Nicholas from Burney’s cottage c2016 Tony Grant

While living in Fairfield Cottage in 1794, Burney began writing Camilla and finished a tragedy called Edwy and Elgiva. Sheridan presented this at Drury Lane with Mrs Siddons and Kemble. The play was a disaster, Burney putting it down to the cast being under rehearsed. Also while living in Bookham, Burney gave birth to a son on December 18, 1794 – he was baptized Alexander at St Nicholas Church by the Reverend Cooke. Many important French emigres attended the baptisim, all friends of General D’Arbley. The D’Arblays obviously knew the Cookes well, and it seems inconceivable that Jane Austen never met Burney – yet there is no evidence that she did.

I have discovered a few more things about Frances Burney, not related to Jane Austen but of interest to me, that give me the impetus to explore her world more. Burney’s father was a well-regarded composer and musician. He was a friend to Mrs Thrale, a great society hostess in the 18^th century. Mrs Thrale lived at Streatham Park in a grand house where she entertained Dr Johnson, a close friend of her husband Mr Thrale. She encouraged and nurtured Frances Burney and many other famous people of the time such as James Boswell and the great artist Joshua Reynolds. Streatham Park, now a Victorian housing estate, is a mile from where I live. Chessington Hall, just south of me is where another friend of Burney’s father’s lived and where Frances often visited. It is said she began writing Cecelia while staying at Chessington. Yes, I have much to explore.

Also living in the area of Great Bookham at the time Jane visited, and close associates of Frances Burney, were Richard Brinsley Sheridan – living at the great house of Polesdon Lacey on the edge of Bookham – and Madamoiselle Anne Louise Germaine de Stael. She was a novelist too. Jane liked her Corinne ou L’Italie. De Stael owned Juniper Hall where French emigres including General D’Arbley were given shelter. We know that De Stael read Jane’s novels but pronounced them “vulgaire.” Jane avoided meeting De Stael, but this is another story entirely…

Interior St Nicholas – c2016 Tony Grant

References:

Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomlin ( Viking 1997)
Jane Austen’s Letters. Collected and edited by Deirdre Le Faye (Third Edition, Oxford University Press 1995)
The Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arbley
Great Bookham at the time of Jane Austen, Fanny Burney and R B Sheridan by William Whitman (Pub: The Parochial Church Council of St Nicholas, Great Bookham)

Want to visit Great Bookham? here’s how to get there on Google Maps.

c2016 Jane Austen in Vermont; text and photographs by Tony Grant, with thanks!

January 3, 2014 by BookLady Deb

Book Review: Nicholas Ennos’ Jane Austen: A New Revelation ~ “Conspiracy is the Sincerest Form of Flattery”

Dear Gentle Readers: I welcome today Janine Barchas with her review of the recently published Jane Austen: A New Revelation by Nicholas Ennos – his book tackles the question of who really authored Jane Austen’ s six novels and juvenilia…

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“Conspiracy is the Sincerest Form of Flattery”

Review of Nicholas Ennos, Jane Austen: A New Revelation (Senesino Books, Oct. 2013). Pp. 372. £25. Available from Amazon.com as an e-book for Kindle for $10.99.

The litmus test of true literary achievement is whether your works are deemed so great that you simply could not have written them.

Janeites need no longer envy students of Shakespeare their intricate web of Renaissance conspiracy theories. Whereas Shakespeare scholarship has long enjoyed the spectral presence of the Earl of Oxford, Austen studies can now boast a countess named Eliza de Feuillide.

The self-published Jane Austen: A New Revelation alleges that “a poor, uneducated woman with no experience of sex or marriage” could not possibly have written the sophisticated works of social satire and enduring romance that we traditionally attribute to Jane Austen. The book’s author, Nicholas Ennos (the aura of conspiracy allows that this is not necessarily his/her real name), asserts that biographers have been leading everyone by the nose. The true author of the Austen canon is, instead, Madame la Comtesse de Feuillide, born Eliza Hancock (1761-1813). Eliza was the worldly and well-educated older cousin of Jane Austen who, after being made a young widow by the French Revolution, married Henry Austen, Jane’s favorite brother. The sassy Eliza has long been pointed to as a model for the morally challenged characters of Lady Susan and Mary Crawford in the fictions. To identify Eliza as the actual author was, Ennos explains, the next logical step.

Shakespeare’s First Folio – Haverford.edu

Just so, and also about two centuries into his literary afterlife, William Shakespeare’s lofty literary achievements were judged incompatible with his humble origins, sowing seeds of doubt that a person so little known could have achieved so much. Slowly, the man named Will Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon came to be considered by a small-but-articulate fringe to be a mere front shielding the genuine author (or authors) of the works written under the pen name of Shakespeare. Austen’s genteel poverty, relative isolation, and biographical quiet allows for a similar approach. For how, asks Ennos, can genius thrive with so little food of experience to feed it?

The arguments for Shakespeare reattribution rely heavily upon biographical allusions as well as the absence of works in manuscript. Similarly, Austen critics who have been keen to spot biographical references to real places and family members in the fictions have apparently opened the door to skeptics who can now point to Cassandra’s “systematic destruction” of her sister’s letters as proof of a conspiracy. Ennos also draws attention to the “suspicious” parallel fact that no Austen novel survives in manuscript. The juvenilia, which does survive in Jane’s hand, is explained away as early secretarial work for Eliza during her visits to the Steventon household.

Eliza died in April of 1813, well before the publication of Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), or Persuasion and Northanger Abbey (Dec 1817). The so-called Oxfordians overcame the timeline obstacles posed by Edward de Vere’s early death in 1604 by redating many Shakespeare texts, which (their logic dictates) must have been composed earlier than previously thought and squirreled away for later publication by an appointed agent. So too is the Austen corpus deftly redated by Ennos—with husband Henry, cousin Cassandra, and amanuensis Jane as co-conspirators. Some historians allow that Eliza was in all probability the natural daughter of politician Warren Hastings. Ennos adds to this existing context of secrecy that Eliza’s illegitimacy was the “disgrace” that the Austens “were determined to cover up after Eliza’s death” and the reason that “the myth of Jane Austen’s authorship was invented.”

Readers of Austen will doubtless need some time to process the implications of these revelations. For example, what of the presumed poignancy of Persuasion’s temporal setting? The events in this novel take place during the false peace of the summer of 1814—a short reprieve in the Napoleonic wars that saw the premature return of Britain’s navy men after the initial exile of Napoleon to Elba. Persuasion has been on record as composed between August 1815 and August 1816, in the full knowledge of both the false hopes of that summer and the true end to the war that came with the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Ennos moves the novel’s date of composition prior to April 1813. Although he does not go so far as to urge Eliza’s historical prescience, he suggests that these features are merely evidence of judicious tweaks to manuscripts left in Henry’s care at Eliza’s death.

Eliza de Feuillide Frances Burney Jane Austen

This is not all. Ennos further declares that the precocious Eliza also wrote the novels conventionally attributed to Frances Burney (1752-1840). The resemblances between Evelina and Pride and Prejudice have long been acknowledged by scholars who have (mistakenly, according to Ennos) attributed this to Burney’s literary influence upon the young Austen. Ennos reasons that Frances Burney’s lack of literary success after Eliza’s death, including her “truly dreadful” novel The Wanderer in 1814, is evidence of her being, in fact, an imposter. While future stylometric analysis may eventually confirm that Jane and Fanny were one and the same Eliza, this method has not settled the authorship question irrevocably for Shakespeare. Perhaps this is why Ennos does not turn to computer analysis or linguistics for help. He does identify Elizabeth Hamilton, the name of another minor authoress, as a further pseudonym used by the talented Eliza—ever widening the corpus of works that might appeal to those already interested in Austen.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the novels attributed to Jane Austen were published anonymously during her lifetime. Logically, any book written anonymously must be in want of a conspiracy. The grassy knoll of this particular conspiracy is the biographical notice in Northanger Abbey, released simultaneously with Persuasion six months after Jane Austen’s death in 1817. History has taken Henry Austen, a failed banker, at his word in identifying the author as his sister. Ennos, who is not very gallant towards the species of academics and literary critics whom he dismisses as “simple souls,” suggests that Austen scholarship has been surprisingly gullible in accepting Henry’s attribution without question.

In the wake of the Ireland forgeries of the 1790s, generations of Shakespeare scholars offered dozens of different names for the man behind the mask of “Will Shakespeare.” Although the Earl of Oxford has garnered Hollywood’s vote, Francis Bacon and Christopher Marlowe are next in popularity. We can only hope that these allegations by Ennos prop open the doors of Austen authorship so that additional candidates can step forward to provide generations of graduate students with dissertation fodder.

Does the Eliza attribution theory expect to be taken seriously? Or does this maverick publication deliberately mock established scholarship by means of cartoonish imitation? I’m not sure it really matters. If this project had ambitions to be a serious Sokal-style hoax, then it did not manage to convince a top publisher and, as a result, lacks the ability to wound deeply. The prose is also too earnest and unadorned for an academic satire—devoid of the jargon that should dutifully accompany a spoof. The resulting pace is too sluggish for irony. That said, there are plenty of moments that even David Lodge could not improve upon. For example, Ennos points to an acrostic “proof” of hidden clues in the dedicatory poem to Evelina (only visible if decoded into Latin abbreviations). There is also the syllogistic central assertion that if the novels of both Burney and Austen resemble the Latinate style of Tacitus, then these could only have been written by 1) the same person and 2) someone schooled in Latin. Ergo, Eliza is the true author behind both, since only she could have learned Latin from Reverend George Austen, Jane’s father (who might teach a niece but never his youngest daughter). Finally, there are gestures towards wider bodies of knowledge: “In this respect the philosophy of both authors has been linked to the views of the Swedish philosopher, Swedenborg.” Perhaps Ennos is simply angling for someone to buy the movie option. “Anonymous” did well at the box office, so why not a film dubbed “Eliza”?

No matter what the intention, hearty congratulations are due to Jane Austen. For her, this news makes for a strong start to the New Year. Exactly two centuries into her literary afterlife, a doubting Thomas was the last requirement of literary celebrity still missing from her resume. Austen can now take her seat next to Shakespeare, secure in the knowledge that her authorship, too, has begun to be questioned.

You know you’ve hit the big time when you didn’t write your own work.

— Reviewed by Janine Barchas

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Barchas is the author of Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity (Johns Hopkins, 2012). She is also the creator of “What Jane Saw”, an on-line reconstruction of an art exhibit attended by Jane Austen on 24 May 1813. Recently, she has written for The New York Times and the Johns Hopkins University Press Blog.

c2014 Jane Austen in Vermont; text c2014 Janine Barchas

November 15, 2013 by BookLady Deb

More Austen on the Block! ~ A Jane Austen Portrait, First Editions, and More

UPDATE: Prices realized [with buyer’s premium] are noted as made available

I wonder what is going on – I posted last week on several upcoming auctions with a number of Jane Austen offerings – and now I write about even more – there seems to an abundance, more than usual – why is this do you think??

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I will start with this, out of date order, but perhaps the most unique, interesting, (and expensive) to us:

Sothebys – 10 December 2013: English Literature, History, Children’s Books & Illustrations. London.

Lot 283:

Austen, Jane – by James Andrews. PORTRAIT OF JANE AUSTEN.

watercolour over pencil heightened with gouache on card, depicting the author with brown curly hair and hazel eyes seated and facing towards the right, in a white frilled bonnet with light blue ribbon and a white dress with a dark blue ribbon under the bust, a small section at the bottom of the portrait apparently unfinished, oval, 143 x 100mm (overall sheet size 170 x 125mm), 1869, series of pin-holes at the top and bottom of the card, pencil markings probably by the engraver, mounted, framed, and glazed, frame size 327 x 247mm, the frame being a reused lid from a casket or box, French or German, probably eighteenth century, walnut inlaid with boulle-style marquetry of flowers and scrollwork in brass, silver, ivory, and mother of pearl, loss to surface of portrait probably due to insect damage, mostly affecting the dress, slight discolouration at edges seemingly where previously mounted in a rectangular frame.

The portrait of Jane Austen was commissioned by her nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh, to illustrate his memoir of his aunt. This watercolor by painter James Andrews was the basis for the engraved version that is the best known and most reproduced image of Austen. It has been in the family ever since.

Estimate: £150,000 — 200,000

[Note: For those of you in the New York area, this portrait will be on view from November 19 to 21 on the fourth floor of Sotheby’s, 1334 York Ave at 72nd St. Sotheby’s is open from 10 to 5. ]

There are other must-have items at this auction – see below [all are in chronological order]

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Swanns Galleries. November 21, 2013. 19TH & 20TH CENTURY LITERATURE. Sale 2332.

Lot 4:

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AUSTEN, JANE. Mansfield Park. 2 volumes. Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1832.

4 page publisher’s catalogue inserted at front of volume 1. 8vo, original publisher’s 1/4 cloth-backed drab boards, lettering labels on spines (absent but for trace remnants on each volume, and with small contemporary institutional labels either perished or remnant only below on each volume), cocked, few short splits at spine tips, generally mild staining and light wear to boards, corners rubbed with light exposure; hinges tender, pastedowns coming loose from boards in volume 1, scattered foxing throughout, at times heavily to volume 2, occasional small chips at deckle, old penciled numerals on front free endpapers, paper repairs on 2 leaves in volume 1 with no loss of text; housed in custom drop-back cloth case.

First american edition, extremely rare in the original binding. One of 1250 copies printed. Few copies of any of Austen’s first American editions have survived. “No appearance of the 1832 M[ansfield] P[ark] at auction has been traced” (Gilson, rev. ed., 1997). A survey of ABPC and AE records only one unsophisticated copy sold in the last 30 years. Gilson B4.

Estimate $4,000 – 6,000 – Price Realized $5,376

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Lot 5:

AUSTEN, JANE. Pride and Prejudice. Second Edition. London: Printed for T. Egerton, 1813.

3 volumes. Lacking half-titles. 12mo, contemporary 1/2 calf over marbled boards, spine gilt with leather lettering pieces (two perished, one with partial loss), covers and spines scuffed with some splitting along spine ends, fore-edges bumped in areas, joints strengthened; scattered light foxing, neat contemporary ownership inscriptions on title-page of each volume.

The less common second edition. According to Gilson, the publishing history is rather furtive (“The size of the edition is not known”). It does differ from the first edition in that it is entirely reset, resulting in occasional variations within the page. In addition, there are numerous small changes to spelling and punctuation and, occasionally, a change in wording (see Gilson A4 for list of alterations.); Chapman 4.

Estimate $3,000 – 4,000 – Price Realized $4,096
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Lot 6:

AUSTEN, JANE. The Novels. Edinburgh: John Grant, 1911-12.

12 volumes. Portrait frontispiece to volume 1. 8vo, later 1/4 olive calf, spine gilt in 5 compartments with gilt-lettered morocco lettering pieces in 1, top edges gilt. the Winchester Edition, a bright and clean set. One of the more desirable editions of Austen’s works.

Estimate $800 – 1,200 – Price Realized $1,875

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Also of interest: [to me anyway!]- as well as some wonderful offerings in children’s literature, lots of Dickens, alas! only one Hardy, but some lovely Hemingways and Twains…

Lot 238:

Steinbeck, John. ASSOCIATION COPY WITH ‘PIGASUS’ DRAWING.
The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Viking, (1939)

8vo, publisher’s pictorial tan cloth, covers clean with virtually no rubbing or wear; outer pastedown edges with faint evidence of binder’s glue as usual, though with no offsetting to facing endpapers; first state dust jacket, mild rubbing to folds, small skillful restorations to spine panel tips and flap folds, bright and clean, a superb example with the original $2.75 price present.

First edition, an excellent association copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper “For Jules and Joyce and also Joan [underlined] with love John Steinbeck.” Below his signature Steinbeck added his “Pigasus” drawing. Jules Buck was a movie producer; he and Steinbeck made an early attempt toward a collaborative screenplay for what would become Elia Kazan’s “Viva Zapata,” though Steinbeck’s contribution was such that he received sole credit. Buck produced such post-war film classics as Robert Siodmak’s The Killers (based on the story by Ernest Hemingway), and Jules Dassin’s The Naked City. His wife Joyce Gates was an actress and their daughter Joan became the editor of French Vogue. Steinbeck generally reserved his flying pig doodle for close friends or significant occasions. In a letter (March, 1983) Elaine Steinbeck explained the significance of the image: “The Pigasus symbol came from my husband’s fertile, joyful, and often wild imagination … John would never have been so presumptuous as to use the winged horse as his symbol; the little pig said that man must try to attain the heavens though his equipment be meager. Man must aspire though he be earthbound” (The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies). An excellent inscribed copy with a fine association. Goldstone & Payne A12.a.

Estimate $18,000 – 25,000 – Price Realized $18,750
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Lot 71:

[Cruikshank, Isaac Robert]. UNRECORDED CRUIKSHANK (illus.). Mock Heroics, on Snuff, Tobacco, and Gin; And A Rhapsody on an Inkstand by J. Elagnitin. London: Hodgson and Co., 1822.

Frontispiece and 3 full page color engravings by I. R. Cruikshank. 8vo, contemporary full dark green crushed morocco, French fillet covers, spine decorated in gilt in compartments, all edges gilt, wide inner dentelles, by Riviere; tiny marginal repair on frontispiece, mild offsetting to title-page, else quite clean.

First edition of rare Cruikshank title with very bright, clean impressions of the plates. Shows London denizens taking snuff, on the pipe, at the debauch, and a more lonely pursuit. Not in Krumbhaar.

Estimate $700 – 1,000 – Price Realized $469

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Doyle, New York. Monday, November 25, 2013 at 10am Rare Books, Autographs & Photographs – Sale 13BP04

Lot 522:

AUSTEN, JANE. The Novels. Edinburgh: John Grant, 1911-12.

The Winchester edition. Twelve volumes, full blue morocco gilt, the spines elaborately tooled and lettered in gilt with red morocco lettering labels, top edge gilt. 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches (22 x 14 cm). A fine and attractive set.

Estimate $1,000-1,500

[Note: This set is similar to the one noted above, just with a different binding – which do you like best?]
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There is quite a collection of photographs and political collectibles at this auction, including this Tom Jones, Theodore Roosevelt’s copy:

Lot 515:

FIELDING, HENRY. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. London: printed for A. Millar, over-against Catharine-Street in the Strand, 1749. First edition, Theodore Roosevelt’s copy, with his “Qui plantavit curabit” bookplate to each pastedown. Six volumes, later full brown morocco gilt, all edges gilt. 6 1/4 x 3 3/4 inches (16 1/2 x 10 cm); with the errata leaf present in vol. I and with most called for cancels: Vol. I: B9, 10; Vol. II: N12; Vol. III: H8-10, M3; Vol. IV: B1, Vol. V: N8. [without the cancels at B4 and 5 in vol. II and Q11 in vol. III]. A 1910 inscription to front free endpaper on vol. I in an unknown hand, some foxing throughout, D10 in vol 2 with tear not affecting text, joints and extremities rubbed, losses to lettering labels, a sound set.
First edition of one of the earliest English works to be called a novel – with a very fine American provenance.

Estimate $2,000-3,000

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Sotheby’s auction December 5, 2013 New York: Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana

This is my birthday, so in case you are wondering what I might like, I will take any of these…

Lot 85:

Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. London: Printed for the Author and published by T. Egerton, 1811.

3 volumes, 12mo (6 3/4 x 4 in.; 172 x 104 mm). Half-titles (with the correct length of rules as called for) in all volumes but lacking the terminal blanks in each, lower corner of B2 torn away in vol. 1, very occasional and mostly marginal faint staining throughout. Modern three quarter tan morocco and linen cloth by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, red morocco labels.

Estimate: $20,000 — 30,000. Did Not Sell

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Lot 86:

Pride and Prejudice: A Novel. London: T. Egerton, 1813

3 volumes, 12mo (6 3/4 x 4 1/16 in.; 171 x 105 mm). Lacks half-titles, some staining and browning throughout but less so in vols. 2 and 3, closed tear in gutter of first text page in vol. 1 and last of vol. 3, front endpapers lacking in last volume. Contemporary half calf and marbled boards, spines with six gilt-ruled compartments and black morocco labels, a little rubbed overall, with minor wear at head of volume 1.

Estimate: $20,000 — 30,000

SOLD for $46,875.

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Lot 87:

Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park. London: Printed for T. Egerton, 1814

3 volumes. 12mo (6 7/8 x 4 1/4 in.; 176 x 105 mm). Lacking half-titles but terminal blanks present, lower corner of Q3 in vol. 1 torn away, vol. 3 pg. 175 with clean tear repaired, few light stray spots to title pages, but text unusually free from staining and browning. Near-contemporary half calf and marbled boards, spines gilt in 5 compartments, red and black morocco labels; sides rubbed, vol.1 rebacked preserving spine, upper joint of vol. 3 starting.

Estimate: $7,000 — 10,000 – SOLD for $13,750.
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Lot 88:

Austen, Jane. Emma: A Novel. London: Printed for John Murray, 1816.

3 volumes, 12mo (6 ¼ x 4 1/8 in.; 165 x 105 mm). Lacking half-titles; intermittent spotting and some staining, more so in vol. 2. Near-contemporary half calf and marbled boards, spines gilt in 5 compartments with black morocco labels; some rubbing to sides and minor shelfwear along bottom edges, some skinning at top of spine ends.

Estimate: $7,000 — 9,000 – SOLD for $11,875.
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Lot 89:

Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion. London, John Murray, 1818.

4 volumes, 12mo (6 3/4 x 4 1/4 in.; 172 x 106 mm). Lacking half-titles; some very minor and mostly marginal spotting. Contemporary black half roan and marbled boards, spines ruled and gilt-titled; some rubbing to joints, slight wear at corners and along bottom edge, but a generally handsome set.

Estimate : $5,000 — 7,000 – SOLD for $8,125.

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Other items of interest at this auction:

Lot 92: Love this binding!

Burney, Frances. Cecilia, or Memoires of an Heiress. London: for T Payne and Son and T Cadell, 1782

5 volumes, 12mo (6 3/4 x 4 ins; 172 x 100 mm). Advertisement leaf present in first volume, vols. 2, 3, 5 lacking rear endpapers. Contemporary calf, rebacked to style with red morocco and green morocco labels.

Estimate: $2,000 — 4,000.
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Lot 93:

Burney, Frances. Camilla: or a Picture of Youth. London: for T. Payne, T. Cadell Jun and W. Davies, 1796

5 volumes, 12mo (174 x 102 mm). The occasional proud gathering and a few closed marginal tears to a handul leaves only. Contemporary speckled calf, single rule border to sides, spines with double-ruled compartments, green morocco labels; trace of rubbing to joints, upper joint of vol. 2 tender, but a lovely set.

Estimate: $3,000 — 5,000.
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Lot 96:

Byron, George Gordon, Lord. Autograph verses for The Corsair. [1814].

Autograph fragment of two verses. 1 page (7 x 1 in.; 180 x 28 mm). Mounted in a portfolio with a portrait of the author; “And sad & lonely mid the holy calm / Near Theseus’ fence y on solitary Palm.”

These two lines are the verses 1213 and 1214 of The Corsair, Canto III, published in 1814. In the edition of the Works of Lord Byron (Coleridge & Prothero, 1898-1905), the verses are: “And, dun and sombre ‘mid the holy calm, / Near Theseus’ fane yon solitary palm.”

Together with: autograph letter, signed (“Lord Byron” in third person). 1 page (8 5/3 x 6 7/8 in.; 219 x 175 mm), “13 Piccadilly Terrace, August 15th 1815”; to an unidentified correspondent: “Lord Byron presents his compliments to Mr. Juling [?] & would be glad to know if the letter of which he encloses the cover was not overcharged upon the [District?] stated on the address by the postman. The charge was thirteen pence half penny”. Formerly folded, soiling and foxing, tiny repair on the address. –Autograph address panel, cut from the address leaf of a letter addressed to his sister, August Leigh. 1 page (4 3/4 x 3 in.; 121 x 75 mm); wax seal; mounted in tinted roan folder.

Estimate: $4,000 — 6,000.

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Sothebys – 10 December 2013: English Literature, History, Children’s Books & Illustrations. London

This auction includes the portrait noted above, but there a number of other offerings worth sharing: see the catalogue online where you will find a treasure-trove of children’s books and their illustrators [Rackham, Tolkien, Potter, Robinson, Shepard, Pogany, Nielsen, Dulac, De Brunhoff, Carroll, Blyton, and more] , and also Johnson, Dickens, Pope, and Swift… and more…

Lot 284:

[Brontë, Charlotte]. JANE EYRE. AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. EDITED BY CURRER BELL. SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 1847

8vo (198 x 124mm), 3 volumes, first edition of the author’s first published novel, half-titles, publisher’s 32pp. catalogue dated October 1847 at the end of volume 1, without the extra advertisement leaf present in some copies (no priority), original dark greyish reddish brown vertically-ribbed cloth, covers decorated in blind with triple line border enclosing decorative trellis-like border, pale yellow endpapers, tear to inner margin of T2 in volume 1 (not affecting text), small portion of lower outer margin of U3 in volume 2 torn away (also not affecting text), occasional foxing and browning to text leaves, lower hinges of volumes 1 and 3 starting, hinge of upper hinge of volume 2 slightly cracked, cloth at top of spine of volume 1 slightly chipped, further slight edge-wear to covers and some slight fading.

Estimate: £35,000 — 45,000

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These are just fun!

Lot 219:

Playing cards: Popish Plot cards. [LONDON: ROBERT WALTON, C. 1679 OR LATER]

52 cards, each 90 x 54mm., engraved with captions, grey patterned versos, 12 mounted in a frame, the rest in a folder attached to the back of the frame, three cards somewhat worn (two of diamonds, ten of spades and ace of hearts), king of clubs torn with loss of club symbol.

Estimate: £2,500 — 3,000
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There are several other playing cards on offer as well – another example – because the images are fabulous!

Lot 236:

Playing cards: The Beggar’s Opera [LONDON: JOHN BOWLES, C. 1730]

52 cards, each 95 x 62mm., engraved with the hearts and diamonds coloured in red, plain versos, 13 mounted in a frame, the rest in a folder attached to the back of the frame, a few cards cut close, a few light stains

Estimate: £3,000 — 5,000

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Lot 335:

Cruikshank, George. THE OUTRAGED HUSBAND.

165 by 228mm., ink and watercolour drawing, signed lower right, mounted, framed and glazed, some minor browning at extremities from former mount

Estimate: £1,500 — 2,000

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Some great items to add to your wish list! – go to the auction catalogues for even more treasures! Happy hunting [and wishing…]

C2013 Jane Austen in Vermont

October 30, 2013 by BookLady Deb

Austen on the Block! ~ A Lot of Lots!

UPDATE: Prices Realized added as available, includes buyer’s premium

There is much going on with Jane Austen and the Auction Block in the next month! – just this past week, Gorringes at their October 23, 2013 Fine Art, Antiques & Collectables auction – Sale LOCT13, had this on offer: Estimate £2,000-3,000. SOLD for £11,000 !

Lot 1454:

Austen, Jane. An autograph manuscript fragment, comprising four lines, attached to another leaf bearing authentication, in turn attached to a letter from her nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh, written on paper bearing watermark date 1868, at Bray Vicarage, February 7, 1870, presenting the fragment to Rev. G. C. Berkeley: ‘Men may get into the habit of repeating the words of our Prayers by rote, perhaps without thoroughly understanding – certainly without thoroughly feeling their full force and meaning.’ All attached to the title page of a copy of Austen-Leigh’s ‘A Memoir of Jane Austen…’ fragment approximately 1.75 x 6in.

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Upcoming auctions: an abundance of Austen, Austen’s Circle, and Regency-era prints – I include various items because they are too wonderful not to share, but please visit each auction house site to see the “infinite variety” of offerings:

Bloomsbury: 7 November 2013. Library of a Gentleman: Fine Colour Plate, Costume, Travel and Sporting Books. London.

This auction is filled with Ackerman, Rowlandson, Cruickshank, Gillray and others! – here are a few examples, but go have a look at this treasure-trove for a Gentleman OR a Lady!

Lot 1:

Ackermann’s London – “Billingsgate Market”

Ackermann, (Rudolph). Microcosm of London.

3 vol., first edition, early issue with several of Abbey’s 12 “key plates” in first state (nos.1, 5, 8, 10, 11 & 18 and possibly 9), lacking half-titles, with wood-engraved pictorial titles, engraved dedication leaves, 104 hand-coloured aquatint plates after Rowlandson and Pugin, offsetting from plates but plates generally clean, some text leaves in vol.1 browned, handsome contemporary diced russia with elaborate gilt borders and cornerpieces, by C.Hering with his ticket, g.e., rebacked preserving old gilt spines, later cloth slip-cases edged in morocco, [Abbey Scenery 212; Tooley 7], 4to, [1808-10].

Early issue bound from the original parts, watermarked 1806-07 and with all the 13 errata at end of vol.3 uncorrected and the Contents leaf in vol.1 headed “Contents”. However, the imprint of the wood-engraved title to vol.2 does not have a comma after “Bensley” but that in vol.1 does.

Estimate: £3,000 – £5,000; Starting Bid £2,600 – Sold for £4464

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Lot 2:

“Foppish Attitudes” from The Busy Body, or Men and Manners

[Agg (John)] The Busy Body, or Men and Manners, edited by Humphrey Hedgehog, vol.1 & 2 only (parts 1-12), 11 hand-coloured aquatint plates by Williams, a little browning and offsetting, later tan calf, gilt, by Rivière & Son, spines gilt, g.e., spines chipped at head, joints split with covers becoming loose, 8vo, J.Johnston, 1816-17.

Estimate £200 – £300; starting Bid £180 – Sold for £211

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Lot 3:

“Driving Discoveries”

[Alken (Henry)] – the set of 7 hand-coloured etchings by Henry Alken, very slight marginal soiling, bookplates of William Henry Smith, Viscount Hambleden and George Seton Veitch, handsome later scarlet morocco, by Rivière & Son, covers with gilt border and upper cover titled and dated in gilt, spine gilt in compartments with five raised bands, g.e., corners very slightly rubbed, an excellent copy, [Siltzer pp.57 & 69; Tooley 25], oblong 4to, S. & J.Fuller, 1817 [watermarked 1821].

Estimate: £600 – £800; starting Bid £500 – Sold for £1364

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Lot 37:

[Burney (Fanny)] Evelina: or Female Life in London: being the History of a Young Lady’s Introduction to Fashionable Life, and the Gay Scenes of the Metropolis, hand-coloured engraved additional pictorial title and 6 plates after W.Heath, all but one aquatints, most offset onto text, some browning, bookplates of Charles C.Auchinloss and Hon.John Wayland Leslie, contemporary mottled calf, gilt, spine gilt with red morocco label, small gouge to lower cover, preserved in later red silk folder (a little rubbed and faded), red morocco slip-case (slightly darkened at edges), [Tooley 119], 8vo, 1822.

⁂ ***Originally published in 1778 under the title Evelina, or, A Young Lady’s Entrance into the World but reissued with this title following the popularity of Egan’s Life in London..

Estimate £200 – £300; starting Bid £180 – Sold for £496

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Lot 267:

Dacre (Charlotte). The School for Friends, a Domestic Tale, first edition, hand-coloured etched frontispiece and vignette title by Thomas Rowlandson, 12pp. text, lightly soiled and stained, stitched in original blue wrappers with paper label on upper wrapper, uncut, slightly soiled, preserved in later cloth portfolio and morocco-backed cloth slip-case, spine faded, 8vo, Thomas Tegg, [c.1800].

One copy only listed on COPAC, in the National Library of Scotland..

Estimate: £200 – £300; starting bid £180 – Sold for £3968

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Lot 274:

Rowlandson: “A Stag at Bay”

Rowlandson, Thomas. Miseries of Human Life”

Hand-coloured etched title and 50 plates by Thomas Rowlandson, without the rare ‘Pall Mall’ plate but replaced with ‘The Chiropodist’ as often and with an additional plate ‘The Enraged Vicar’ (signed and dated in plate 1805), otherwise with all plates as listed in the Abbey copy, light foxing, mostly marginal but affecting a few images, ex-library copy with bookplate and ink accession number to lower margin of first plate (otherwise unstamped), later olive morocco, gilt, by Rivière & Son, spine gilt, t.e.g., rather faded and a little rubbed, covers warped, upper joint repaired, [Abbey, Life 317], 4to, R. Ackermann, [1808].

Estimate: £500 – £700; Starting Bid £440 – Sold for £1054

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Lot 279:

[Collier (Jane)] An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting.

Half-title, folding etched frontispiece and 4 plates by Rowlandson after G.M.Woodward, all hand-coloured, frontispiece with short tear repaired, text browned, later tan calf, gilt, spine gilt, t.e.g., others uncut, a little rubbed, upper joint split, 12mo, 1808.

Estimate: £100 – £150; Starting Bid £90 – Sold for £112

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Lot 288:

Rowlandson: “Doctor Syntax and Bookseller”

[Combe (William)] The Tour of Doctor Syntax, in Search of the Picturesque. A Poem.

First edition, second issue with “Canto I”, hand-coloured aquatint frontispiece, vignette title and 29 plates by Rowlandson, 4pp. advertisements at end, old ink signature at head of title, some light browning and soiling, final leaf of text with small repair to upper inner margin, original boards, uncut, rubbed, rebacked preserving part of old paper label on spine, preserved in later red morocco drop-back box with metal catch, gilt, slightly rubbed, [Tooley 427], 8vo, [1812].

Estimate: £200 – £300; Starting Bid £180 – Sold for £496

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Lot 344:

Wilson (Harriette) – [?Heath (Henry)] Illustrations of Harriette Wilson’s Memoirs,

12 hand-coloured etched plates, 3 signed “H.H.”, c.170 x 140 or vice versa, 7 trimmed to border or just outside plate-mark and tipped into blank leaves, light soiling, one or two small tears to edge of image (repaired), engraved circular bookplate of Sir David Lionel Salomons, Bart., later dark blue morocco, gilt, by Bumpus of Oxford, spine gilt, very slightly rubbed and marked, 4to, S.W.Fores, 1825.

Estimate: £1,000 – £1,500; Starting Bid £900 – Sold for £1736

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Millea Bros. November 9, 2013. Asian, English, Modern Books

Lot 1473:

Austen, Jane. Works. London, 1925. (10) volumes, 8vo., red morocco – Condition report: overall good, bindings good, a few scuffs and nicks

Estimate: $500-700. [no price realized available]

There is no further description about this set in the auction catalogue, but it is the 1925 George Harrap reprint of the 1908-9 Chatto & Windus edition of the novels, with illustrations by A. Wallis Mills. Here is one illustration:

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Bonham’s: 12 November 2013. Books, Atlases, Manuscripts and Photographs including the Aldine Collection of the late Sir Robert Horton, London.

Lot 165:

Austen, Jane. Emma: A Novel, 3 vol., first edition, half-titles in volumes 2 and 3 only, advertisement leaf at end of volume 3, light scattered foxing, stitching becoming loose with P3-4 in volume 1 partially detached, ownership signature of “M.E. Malden” on endpapers, contemporary half calf, worn, 3 covers detached, 4 corners strengthened with vellum, spines cracked [Gilson A8], 12mo, John Murray, 1816.

Estimate: £4,000 – 6,000 (US$ 6,400 – 9,600) – Sold for £5,250 (US$ 8,435) inc. premium

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Christies: 15 November 2013. Sale 9702: Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts. London.

Lot 402:

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. London: T. Egerton, 1813. 2^nd edition. 3 volumes, 12° (173 x 115mm). (Lacking half-titles, P2 at end of volume one with small marginal repair, tiny orange marginal mark to L5v of vol. II and lighter mark on a few other leaves, some spotting occasionally heavier.) Contemporary calf (rebacked, extremities lightly rubbed).

Estimate: £2,000 – £3,000 ($3,234 – $4,851) –

Sold for £2750 ($4,406)

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Lot 403:

Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion… With a Biographical Notice of the Author [by Henry Austen]. London: C. Rowarth [vols I-II], and T. Davison [vols III- IV] for John Murray, 1818 [but ca. 20 December 1817]. 4 volumes, 12° (169 x 100mm). Half-titles. (Some occasional light browning and spotting, without final blanks P7-8 in vol. IV as often.) Contemporary half calf, leather gilt spine labels, speckled edges (front cover of vol. I nearly detached, front joints cracked and restored in vol. III, extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: Maria Cipriani (ownership inscription). FIRST EDITION OF BOTH NOVELS.

Estimate: £3,000 – £5,000 ($4,851 – $8,085) – Sold for £4,750 ($7,610)

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Of interest:

Lot 148:

WOLLSTONECRAFT, Mary (1759-1797). Thoughts on the Education of Daughters with Reflections on Female Conduct, in the more important Duties of Life. London: J. Johnson, 1787. 8° (150 x 98mm). G6 a cancel as usual. (Short tear to last leaf.) Contemporary half calf (rebacked, extremities rubbed).

FIRST EDITION OF WOLLSTONECRAFT’S FIRST BOOK. Although it was an educational manual, the ‘more or less veiled remarks about her own emotional state … make it abundantly clear that she was far more interested in the state of her own life and the prospects that lay ahead of young women than in their years at school’ (Claire Tomalin, The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft, London: Pelican, 1977, pp. 58-59). GOOD COPY. Rothschild 2595.

Estimate: £1,800 – £2,500 ($2,898 – $4,025) – Sold for £3,750 ($6,008)

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Christies: 20 November 2013. Sale 1160. Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books. London.

Lot 84:

[AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817).] Mansfield Park: A Novel… By the Author of “Sense and Sensibility,” and “Pride and Prejudice.” London: T. Egerton, 1814.

FIRST EDITION. 3 volumes, 12° (176 x 102mm). Half-titles. (Lacking blank O4 in volume II and advertisement leaf in volume III, occasional faint spotting.) Contemporary calf, flat spines with compartments ruled in gilt, green morocco gilt spine labels to second compartments, the others tooled in blind, speckled edges (extremities very lightly rubbed).

Estimate: £4,000 – £6,000 ($6,484 – $9,726) – Sold for £13,750 ($22,138)

Lot 85: (another one!)

[AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817).] Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion … With a Biographical Notice of the Author [by Henry Austen]. London: C. Rowarth [vols I-II], and T. Davison [vols III- IV] for John Murray, 1818 [but c. 20 December 1817].

4 volumes, 12° (177 x 103mm). Half-titles. (Some occasional light spotting, without final blanks P7-8 in vol. IV.) Contemporary calf, tan morocco gilt spine labels, speckled edges (extremities lightly rubbed, spines more heavily). Provenance: Baroness Keith of Meiklour House (bookplates). 1^st edition of both novels.

Estimate: £4,000 – £6,000 ($6,484 – $9,726) – Sold for £7,500 ($12,075)

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Also of interest at this auction:

Lot 124:

JOHNSON, Samuel (1709-1784). A Dictionary of the English Language in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. London: W. Strahan for J. and P. Knapton [and others], 1755.

FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes, 2° (405 x 250mm). Titles in red and black, woodcut tail-pieces. (The first title with repaired losses and tears affecting some letters, the titles and a few leaves repaired in the inside margin, some marginal tears and some of these repaired, occasional mostly marginal soiling and spotting, faint dampstain in the margins of some leaves in vol. II.) Contemporary calf (neatly rebacked to style, corners repaired, sides scuffed). Provenance: David Tennant (title signature, some marginalia including on the verso of second title) — Stewart of Glasserton (bookplate).

Estimate: £5,000 – £8,000 ($8,105 – $12,968) – Not Sold

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All images are from each of the auction house websites, as cited.

Happy browsing!

c2013 Jane Austen in Vermont

August 28, 2013 by BookLady Deb

Hot off the Press! ~ Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine No. 65

New issue!

The September/October issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine is out now and will be mailed to subscribers this week. In it you can read about:

Northanger Abbey with strings: the Gothic puppet show that gripped the Edinburgh Festival and is heading to Bath and London
JASNA AGM preview: an exclusive look at September’s gathering in Minneapolis
The importance of being George: the new royal baby has a very Austen name
Trafalgar and Nelson: how the press reported the great Naval victory – plus Nelson’s funeral remembered
Remembering the Burneys: a new plaque in unveiled in memory of Fanny
Plus News, Letters, Book Reviews and information from Jane Austen Societies in the Netherlands, UK and Australia

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To subscribe now click here: http://janeaustenmagazine.co.uk/subscribe/ – and make sure that you are among the first to read all the news from Jane Austen’s Regency World.

[Image and text from JARW Magazine: http://janeaustenmagazine.co.uk/ ]

c2013 Jane Austen in Vermont

May 27, 2013 by BookLady Deb

Austen on the Block!

Several interesting (and largely expensive!) items will be up for auction in the next month:

CHRISTIES: Sale 8952: Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, 18 June 2013, London.

Lot 174:

AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817). Pride and Prejudice. London: T. Egerton, 1813. 3 volumes, 12° (173 x 115mm). (Lacking half-titles, P2 at end of volume one with small marginal repair, tiny orange marginal mark to L5v of vol. II and lighter mark on a few other leaves, some spotting occasionally heavier.) Contemporary calf (rebacked, extremities lightly rubbed).

Second edition. Pride and Prejudice was written between October 1796 and August 1797 when Jane Austen was not yet twenty-one, the same age, in fact, as her fictional heroine Elizabeth Bennet. After an early rejection by the publisher Cadell, Austen’s novel was finally bought by Egerton in 1812 for £110. It was published in late January 1813 in a small edition of approximately 1500 copies and sold for 18 shillings in boards. The present second edition is thought to have been published in October that same year. Gilson A4; Keynes 4. (3)

Estimate: £3,000 – £5,000 ($4,527 – $7,545)

Lot 175:

AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817). Sense and Sensibility, London: printed for the Author and published by T. Egerton, 1813. 3 volumes, 12° (176 x 105mm). (Lacking half-titles and without final blanks, occasional light spotting.) Contemporary calf, gilt spines (joints splitting, corners very lightly bumped, small blank stain to vol. II).

Second edition of Jane Austen’s first published novel which grew from a sketch entitled Elinor and Marianne, written in 1795 in the form of letters; it was revised 1797-1798 at Steventon; and again in 1809-1810, the first year of Jane Austen’s residence at Chawton. Thomas Egerton undertook the publication of the first edition in 1813 on a commission basis, and Jane Austen ‘actually made a reserve from her very moderate income to meet the expected loss’. The price of the novel was 15 shillings in boards and advertisements first appeared for it on 30 October 1811. The present second edition is believed to have been printed in October 1813 as the first edition sold out in less than two years. Gilson A2; Keynes 2. (3)

Estimate: £3,000 – £5,000 ($4,527 – $7,545)

Lot 192:

SETS, English and French literature — AUSTEN, Jane. Works. Illustrated by C.E. Brock. London: 1907. 6 volumes, 8°. Contemporary red half calf, spines lettered in gilt (extremities rubbed). [With:] ELIOT, George. Works. Library Edition. Edinburgh: 1901. 10 volumes, 8°. Contemporary blue half roan, spine tooled in gilt (spines evenly faded, extremities rubbed). [And:] BALZAC, Honoré de. Oeuvres completes. Paris: 1869-1876. 24 volumes, 8°. Contemporary red half roan, spines lettered in gilt (extremities rubbed). And 5 related others [ie. Maupassant, Corneille, Rabelais, Macaulay] in 33 volumes, 12° and 8°. (73)

Estimate: £500 – £800 ($755 – $1,207)

Brock – P&P

[Image from Mollands]

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Other items of interest at this Christie’s auction (i.e., what I would love to have!):

Lot 75:

ACKERMANN — Microcosm of London. London: T. Bensley for R. Ackermann [1808-1810, plates watermarked 1806-1808]. 3 volumes, 4° (330 x 272mm). Engraved titles, engraved dedication leaves, and 104 hand-coloured aquatint plates by Buck, Stadler and others after Rowlandson and Pugin. (Lacking half-titles, light offsetting from the plates onto the text, some text leaves evenly browned.) Late 19th- early 20th-century red half calf, spine gilt in compartments, morocco labels (spines lightly and evenly faded).

ONE OF ACKERMANN’S FINEST BOOKS, the rumbustious figures of Rowlandson are the perfect foil to Pugin’s clear and accurate architectural settings. Printing continued for nearly 30 years but, as Abbey notes, the ‘original impressions of these splendid plates have a luminous quality entirely absent from later printings’. This copy is evidently bound from the original parts: with the first issue of the contents leaf in volume 1, and all the errata uncorrected in volumes 2 and 3, and 5 out of 6 errata corrected in volume 1. This copy shows 2 of Abbey’s first state points for the plates: at plates 8 and 11 in volume 1. Abbey Scenery 212; Tooley 7. (3)

Estimate: £3,000 – £5,000 ($4,527 – $7,545)

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BONHAMS: Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Historical Photographs 20752, 19 Jun 2013 London.

Lot 139:

[AUSTEN (JANE)]. Sense and Sensibility: a Novel. In Three Volumes. By a Lady, 3 vol., first edition, without half-titles, final blank leaf present in volume 2 only, some pale foxing and staining, contemporary calf, sides with gilt and blind-tooled borders, rebacked preserving most of original backstrips and red morocco labels [Keynes 1; Gilson A1; Sadleir 62a], 12mo (173 x 104mm.), Printed for the author, by C. Roworth… and published by T. Egerton, 1811. FIRST EDITION OF JANE AUSTEN’S FIRST PUBLISHED NOVEL. According to Keynes, Egerton printed no more than 1000 copies, priced at 15 shillings in boards; all were sold by the middle of 1813.

Estimate: £15,000 – 20,000 US$ 23,000 – 30,000 €18,000 – 23,000

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Also of note in this auction: a first edition of Jane Eyre

Lot 147:

[BRONTE (CHARLOTTE)]. Jane Eyre. An Autobiography, 3 vol., first edition, with all but two of the printing flaws listed by Smith, half-titles in each volume (but without the additional fly-leaf and advertisements), volume 2 with additional 8-page ‘Ready Money Price List of Drawing & Painting Materials… Alexander Hill’ tipped-in on front free endpaper (seemingly removed from other volumes), original price of “31/6” marked in pencil on front paste-down of volume 1, a few leaves slightly creased, some light foxing and occasional soiling in margins, UNTRIMMED IN PUBLISHER’S GREY BOARDS with grey/brown diaper half cloth spine, rubbed, spine label to volume 1 chipped with loss of 2 or 3 letters, split to lower joint of volume 2, crease to upper cover of volume 3, [Sadleir 346; Smith 2; Grolier, English 83], 8vo (199 x 122mm.), Smith, Elder, and Co., 1847

Footnotes

FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST BRONTE SISTERS NOVEL: AN EXTREMELY RARE VARIANT IN ORIGINAL BOARDS, ENTIRELY UNTRIMMED AND WITH THE ORIGINAL PRICE OF ’31/6′ MARKED IN PENCIL. The binding seems to correspond with Smith’s variant B (allowing for some fading of the cloth over the years), but with white rather than yellow endpapers and a further slight variation in the printed spine labels, those on the present set having no semi-colon after “Eyre” and the words “In Three Volumes” inserted above the volume number. We can find no trace of any other copy in original boards having sold at auction.

Provenance: the tipped-in small price list of drawing and painting materials suggests an Edinburgh connection at or soon after the time of publication. Alexander Hill (of Princes Street, Edinburgh, younger brother of the painter David Octavius Hill) was publisher, artists’ colourman and printer to the Royal Scottish Academy from 1830 until his death in 1866. In 1847 he was also appointed printseller and publisher in Edinburgh to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (see National Archives, LC 5/243 p.61). The price list tipped-in to this copy gives Hill’s address as 67 Princes Street, where he had a shop from 1839 until his death, and mentions the royal appointment, reference to which he seems to have dropped by 1853.

Estimate: £30,000 – 50,000 US$ 45,000 – 75,000 €35,000 – 58,000

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BONHAMS: Fine Books and Manuscripts 20981: June 25, 2013, New York

Lot 3259:

[Austen, Jane]. Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion. With a Biographical Notice of the Author. London: John Murray, 1818. 4 volumes. 12mo (180 x 105 mm). [2], xxiv, 300; [2], 331, [2], 280; [2], 308 pp. Without half-titles. Period half calf over marbled boards, spines gilt. Extremities rubbed, typical light spotting and toning, pp 251-262 in vol 3 creased at outer margin, ffep. in vol 1 loose, volume 4 more so with a crack down spine, a little re-touching to vol 2 spine.

Provenance: T. Hope (early ownership stamps); purchased by the family of the current owner in 1960 from McDonald Booth. FIRST EDITION IN CONTEMPORARY BINDING of Jane Austen’s last published work, issued a year after her death. Persuasion was in fact her first novel, but its first appearance is in this set. This was also her only four-volume publication, all previous works were issued in “triple-deckers.” Gilson A9; Sadleir 62e.

Estimate: US$ 5,000 – 8,000 £3,300 – 5,300 €3,900 – 6,200

Lot 3260:

[Austen, Jane]. Emma: A Novel. In Three Volumes. By the author of “Pride and Prejudice” &c. &c. London: Printed for John Murray, 1816. 3 volumes. 12mo (176 x 112 mm). [6], 322; [2], 351, [1]; [4], 363, [1 ad] pp. Half-titles in vols 1 & 2. Old green marbled boards rebacked to style in calf, green morocco spine labels. Intermittent spotting and browning; vol 2 L8 with corner tear crossing a few letters.

FIRST EDITION. Emma is the only one of Jane Austen’s novels to bear a dedication, to the Prince Regent. It was her fourth novel to be published with a print run of 2000 copies. Gilson A8; Sadleir 62d.

Estimate: US$ 8,000 – 12,000 £5,300 – 8,000 €6,200 – 9,300

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And finally, this letter from Frances Burney to her father comes to auction in just a few days:

Dreweatts / Bloomsbury auction: Important Books & Manuscripts – 30th Anniversary Sale,30 May 2013 London

Lot 171:

Burney (Frances [Fanny], married name D’Arblay, writer, 1752-1840) Autograph Letter initialled “FB d’A” to her father, Charles Burney, “My dearly beloved Padre”, 4pp. with address panel, 8vo, Chenies Street, 12th June 1813, lamenting that she had not been able to visit him, “but some Giant comes always in the way. Twice I have expected Charles [Charles Burney (1757-1817), schoolmaster and book collector; brother of Fanny], to convey me: but his other engagements have made him arrive too late”, social activities, “Yesterday I dined with Lady Lansdowne, & found her remarkably amiable. She is niece to a person with whom I was particularly acquainted of old, at the Queen’s house, Mr. Digby, who was vice Chamberlain; & that made a little opening to converse… Lady Anne was in high spirits, & full of sportive talk & exhilarating smiles. We had no sort of political talk. All was elegant, pleasing, & literary”, and Sir Joshua Reynolds portrait of Dr Burney, “Every body talks of your portrait at Sir Joshua’s exhibition, & concurs in saying it is one of the best that greatest of English Masters ever painted. I have not yet, to my infinite regret, found time for going thither. Mrs. Waddington will positively take me once to Chelsea, to pay her respects to you; but she is prepared for being denied your sight, if you should be ill-disposed for company. Sally must see her at all events: besides she is a great admirer of Traits of Nature”, ink postal stamp, remains of red wax seal, folds, slightly browned.

*** Unpublished; not in The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame D’Arblay), edited by Joyce Hemlow & others, Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1972-75.

Estimate: £3,000-4,000

[Images and text from the respective auction sites]

c2013, Jane Austen in Vermont

December 15, 2012 by BookLady Deb

Happy Birthday Jane Austen! ~ The Ten Best Reasons to Go to a JASNA AGM ~ It’s All About You Jane!

Comment below for the chance to win a surprise Jane Austen-related giveaway!

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The Ten Best Reasons to Go to a JASNA AGM, Or, Why I would celebrate Jane Austen’s Birthday
by Spiriting Her Around Such an Event

Well, I had the best of intentions to do a full write-up of all the major events at the latest JASNA AGM in Brooklyn – a special location for me personally as I am a New Yorker born and bred – but as I have mentioned elsewhere life gets in the way of our best-laid plans and as the AGM now seems light-years away, I propose to just offer a grand summary in the context of why one should go to this annual Jane Austen conference; and why do so many plan on being there year after year? Friends and family just shake their heads with the typical “she only wrote 6 books, whatever can you talk about for 4 days??” and I nod knowingly that a lifetime of conferences would not satisfy… It takes me a long while to re-enter the 21^st century – how delightful it is to enjoy the late 18^th and early 19^th without all the attendant inconveniences! I shall make a best effort to give the salient points of this year’s conference, memory perhaps failing me, with a dependence upon sketchy notes, not enough pictures taken (and those that were, not very good…)

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Jane Austen and Great Bookham by Tony Grant

c2016 Jane Austen in Vermont; text and photographs by Tony Grant, with thanks!

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c2014 Jane Austen in Vermont; text c2014 Janine Barchas

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C2013 Jane Austen in Vermont

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c2013 Jane Austen in Vermont

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c2013 Jane Austen in Vermont

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c2013, Jane Austen in Vermont

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Jane Austen and Great Bookham
by Tony Grant