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

March 3, 2013 by BookLady Deb

The Places of Pride and Prejudice: Where, Oh Where, Did Wickham and Lydia Marry? Or the Dilemma of the Two St Clements

“La! You are so strange! But I must tell you how it went off. We were married, you know, at St. Clement’s, because Wickham’s lodgings were in that parish. And it was settled that we should all be there by eleven o’clock. My uncle and aunt and I were to go together; and the others were to meet us at the church. Well, Monday morning came, and I was in such a fuss! I was so afraid, you know, that something would happen to put it off, and then I should have gone quite distracted. And there was my aunt, all the time I was dressing, preaching and talking away just as if she was reading a sermon. However, I did not hear above one word in ten, for I was thinking, you may suppose, of my dear Wickham. I longed to know whether he would be married in his blue coat.

“Well, and so we breakfasted at ten as usual; I thought it would never be over; for, by the bye, you are to understand, that my uncle and aunt were horrid unpleasant all the time I was with them. If you’ll believe me, I did not once put my foot out of doors, though I was there a fortnight. Not one party, or scheme, or any thing. To be sure London was rather thin, but, however, the Little Theatre was open. Well, and so just as the carriage came to the door, my uncle was called away upon business to that horrid man Mr. Stone. And then, you know, when once they get together, there is no end of it. Well, I was so frightened I did not know what to do, for my uncle was to give me away; and if we were beyond the hour, we could not be married all day. But, luckily, he came back again in ten minutes time, and then we all set out. However, I recollected afterwards that if he had been prevented going, the wedding need not be put off, for Mr. Darcy might have done as well.”

“Mr. Darcy!” repeated Elizabeth, in utter amazement.

Pride and Prejudice, v. III, ch. IX

St Clement Danes – Strand (London Views)

Jane Austen often gives clues to the whereabouts of her locations, especially in her London passages – we know she knew London well and placed her characters in just the right spot to tell her readers who they were by where they lived. We famously have a few “____shire”s scattered about regarding the militia, for an element of secrecy one might assume? But in Pride and Prejudice there are two locations that she specifies that bring only confusion, and both involve Wickham and Lydia: St. Clement, where they were married, and Edward Street, home to Mrs. Younge, Georgiana’s former governess and friend and devious helper to Wickham. Today I will deal with the former…

When Lydia remarks that “We were married, you know, at St. Clement’s, because Wickham’s lodgings were in that parish.” – she gives a clue that perhaps contemporary readers would not have found confusing, but we are left with not being completely sure which St. Clements she is referring to: St Clement Danes in the Strand, or St. Clement Eastcheap. Neither is mentioned in her extant letters.

Pat Rogers notes in her 2006 Cambridge edition of Pride and Prejudice that the fairly large parish of St. Clement Danes had a population of 12,000 in 1801 and “contained areas of cheap lodgings and some raffish districts, notably a part of Drury Lane” (531-32). Most who have written on this would agree (see Kaplan and Fullerton cites below), largely because the other St. Clement (Eastcheap), on St. Clement’s Lane between Lombard Street and Great Eastcheap, would have been too close to the Gardiner’s who lived on Gracechurch Street [see maps for location of both churches]. Wickham would not have placed himself in such a smaller parish, with a population of 350 in 1801 (Rogers, 531), and so close to those who might find him out. Another reason that Rogers selects this as the best option is that in order to marry in this parish, one of the parties had to have residence there for fifteen days (Rogers, 532). Laurie Kaplan adds that “the length of time required for residency functions perfectly for the elopement plot of the novel, for tension increases the longer Lydia and Wickham remain unmarried” (Kaplan, 7). But we know Wickham had no mind to marry Lydia … .another story entirely… (the text is very clear on this: Mrs. Gardiner relates to Elizabeth: “…it only remained, he [Darcy] thought, to secure and expedite a marriage, which in his very first conversation with Wickham, he easily learnt, had never been his design.” (357).

But perhaps in the end, we should just abide by Susannah Fullerton, where in her Celebrating Pride and Prejudice, she blames Lydia for the whole confusing mess: “How typical of Lydia to be inexact in her information!” (p. 94-95)

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Map of City boundaries: The City of London is indicated in dark blue, Westminster in purple, Middlesex in brown, and Southwark in green. The base map is John Rocque’s, London, Westminster and Southwark, 1746. © Motco 2001 from LondonLives.org

Horwood Map panel 14. [RICHARD HORWOOD – MAP OF LONDON, WESTMINSTER AND SOUTHWARK, 1813]
St Clement Danes is located at the heart of London, placed on an island in the middle of the Strand,
opposite the Royal Courts of Justice, the Temple and Fleet Street – on the map above circled in purple.
(Click on map and zoom in; map courtesy of Sue Forgue at Regency Encyclopedia, from the Guildhall Library, London)

St. Clement Danes: The first church on the site was founded by Danes in the 9^th century, and named after St. Clement, patron saint of mariners. It has been rebuilt by William the Conqueror, later again in the Middle Ages, and rebuilt yet again in 1680-82 by Christopher Wren, a steeple added in 1719-20. It was gutted during the blitz, only the walls and tower left standing, and since reconstruction has served as the central church for the Royal Air Force.

An early street view of the Strand and St Clement Danes Church, 1753. On the right is the original entrance to the building.
cTrustees of the British Museum; image from Christina Parolin, Radical Spaces (ANU, 2010).

St Clement Danes today: when in London in May 2011 I visited the Church for the first time, finding it a quite lovely and peacful setting on its little island in the midst of bustling London – here are a few shots, alas! not that well focused and no exterior shots of the facade, so I include one from Geograph.org.uk, with thanks.

St Clement Danes

St Clement Danes, interior

St Clement Danes ceiling

flag in St Clement Danes

St Clement Danes exterior – cPhilip Halling, Geograph.org.uk

[A movie aside: You will notice that there are no entrance steps, as there are no steps for St Clements Eastcheap – if you recall from the 1995 movie, Lydia is running up the steps to the church, so neither of these sites were used in the movie [and I find no picture of this scene – if anyone knows where that exterior shot was filmed, please let me know!]

St Clement Eastcheap - Harrison engraving 1777 - wikipedia

Facade St Clement Eastcheap

c.1760, from Walter Harrison’s History of London (1777) – wikipedia

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St. Clement Eastcheap: located on St. Clement’s Lane between Lombard Street and Great Eastcheap [today on Clement’s Lane, off King William Street] and close to London Bridge and the River Thames – see here on the Horwood panel 15:

Horwood Map panel 15. [RICHARD HORWOOD – MAP OF LONDON, WESTMINSTER AND SOUTHWARK, 1813]
The purple marks Gracechurch Street, home ot the Gardiners, and ends at the botton at Great Eastcheap,
go one block to the left to find St. Clement’s Lane, the Church is on the right.
(Click on map and zoom in; map courtesy of Sue Forgue at Regency Encyclopedia, from the Guildhall Library, London)

Though we are quite sure that this is not where Austen had Lydia and Wickham marrying, it is still worth noting – perhaps we are wrong in our assumptions after all, and Wickham was just “hiding in plain sight”? This St. Clement has possible Roman origins; it was destroyed in 1666 in the Great Fire of London, and rebuilt in the 1680s and also designed by Wren. And one should note that “cheap” is an old Saxon word meaning “market” and does not mean “cheap” as we associate it today. Here are a few images:

St Clement Eastcheap – London Views

St Clement Eastcheap today – wikipedia

There are a number of fine images of St. Clement Eastcheap on flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/costi-londra/sets/72157621338588177/

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The St Clement argument does not just revolve around Jane Austen [and indeed may she just been throwing out a very sly reference to her sailor brothers? – just a thought, St. Clement being the patron saint of sailors] … The Churches apparently have a long-standing “quibble” over which is the St. Clement referred to in the nursery rhyme “Oranges and Lemons” – here is the full rhyme: [the long version from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oranges_and_Lemons ]. It is the bells of St. Clement Danes that ring out the tune of the rhyme three times a day.

“Oranges And Lemons”, Nicholl Bouvier Games 1874, “The Pictorial World” by Agnes Rose Bouvier (1842 – 1892) – wikipedia

Gay go up and gay go down, To ring the bells of London town.

Oranges and lemons, Say the bells of St. Clements.

Bull’s eyes and targets, Say the bells of St. Margret’s.

Brickbats and tiles, Say the bells of St. Giles’.

Halfpence and farthings, Say the bells of St. Martin’s.

Pancakes and fritters, Say the bells of St. Peter’s.

Two sticks and an apple, Say the bells of Whitechapel.

Pokers and tongs, Say the bells of St. John’s.

Kettles and pans, Say the bells of St. Ann’s.

Old Father Baldpate, Say the slow bells of Aldgate.

You owe me ten shillings, Say the bells of St. Helen’s.

When will you pay me? Say the bells of Old Bailey.

When I grow rich, Say the bells of Shoreditch.

Pray when will that be? Say the bells of Stepney.

I do not know, Says the great bell of Bow.

Here comes a candle to light you to bed,

Here comes a chopper to chop off your head.

Chip chop chip chop, The last man’s dead!

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You can hear more of the history of the rhyme here on youtube; and you can listen to the rhyme here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9hzYkh-lp0

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And finally, to bring this back to Jane Austen, where all begins and ends after all, there is behind the St Clement Danes church a statue, by Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald and erected in 1910, of all people, Jane Austen’s very own Dear Dr. Johnson. I think she would be pleased, don’t you?

Samuel Johnson – St Clement Danes

Further reading:

1. Laurie Kaplan. “London as Text: Teaching Jane Austen’s “London” Novels In Situ.” Persuasions On-Line 32.1 (2011).

2. Pat Rogers, ed. Pride and Prejudice: The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen. Cambridge UP, 2006. Google link: http://books.google.com/books?id=yxIHAemJKM4C&lpg=PA531&ots=DK3PxqM79J&dq=st.%20clements%20pride%20and%20prejudice&pg=PA531#v=onepage&q=st.%20clements&f=false

3. Susannah Fullerton. Celebrating Pride and Prejudice (Voyageur Press, 2013).

4. Pemberley.com has maps and commentary: http://www.pemberley.com/images/landt/maps/pp/StClements.html

5. Patrick Wilson in his Where’s Where in Jane Austen … and What Happens There, (JASA), says it is Danes church in Strand: see JASNA.org http://www.jasna.org/info/maps-london-key.html

6. At Austen.com: http://www.austen-beginners.com/index.shtml

7. Google Maps of Jane Austen places in the novels: this site notes that the St. Clements in is Eastcheap – you can zoom in here in the London area and choose locations.

8. St. Clement Danes website: http://www.raf.mod.uk/stclementdanes/

9. English Heritage: http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1237099

10. London Lives: http://www.londonlives.org/static/StClementDane.jsp

11. Geograph interior image [better than mine!]: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1017806

12. St. Clement Danes at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Clement_Danes

13. St. Clement Eastcheap at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Clement_Eastcheap

c2013 Jane Austen in Vermont

July 21, 2011 by BookLady Deb

Jane Austen Cards for Every Occasion!

Jane Austen at home in Bath

I received the information on these cards just before I was off on a holiday, so just now getting to post about them….

Tony Heaton’s “Greetings from England” line of cards and limited edition prints are quite lovely, our interest being of course those connected to Jane Austen [though certainly not limited to Austen only [isn’t that a name of a blog out there somewhere?] as I for one cannot resist the Shakespeare, the Hardy, or a number of the grand stately houses he depicts. Mr. Heaton, MDesRCA, kindly sent me several samples of the Jane Austen set – I will be ordering a number of each to sell at our meetings to benefit our JASNA-Vermont group.

Here is a sampling of what you will find when you visit the Greetings from England website:

[the images below are very small – go to the website to see a full-size image – the cards are quite large (8×6) and suitable for framing if you did not want the expense of a limited print (which are 12×18)]

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre:

Thomas Hardy’s cottage:

Wordsworth’s cottage:

The Cerne Abbas Giant:

There are many Heritage sites in the UK – from Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, Greenwich’s Royal Naval College, to the coastline of West Dorset and East Devon…

Tower of London

And for Jane Austen? – for that is why we are here after all…

Chawton Cottage

Royal Crescent, Bath

and Jane Austen’s Bath:

There are a number more, so please visit the site to see these and more full-sized images at: http://www.greetingsfromengland.co.uk/

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And this lovely little surprise, as I find if all does not come back to Jane Austen, it is sure to come full circle to Vermont:

The American Museum in Britain – Vermont Quilt

Detail of one side of a Log Cabin-Barn Raising quilt made by
Sarah Bryant of Mount Holly, Vermont, New England USA – 1886

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*All images from the Greetings from England website, copyright Tony Heaton, and used with permission. Please request permission directly from Mr. Heaton for re-use of any kind. Mr. Heaton also creates home portraits – contact him at his website for further information.

July 8, 2010 by BookLady Deb

Web Round-up ~ All Things Austen!

I marvel each day the number of Austen-related blog posts, newspaper articles, and just plain references to “Jane Austen” that show up, sometimes in the unlikeliest of places. It’s like the old story if you buy a yellow VW, you will suddenly see a ton of yellow VWs running all over the place. My mother named me “Deborah” when the name was unheard of – and a year later, everywhere she went she heard mothers calling for their little “Debbies” – same for me when I gave my daughter 38 years ago my completely unheard of middle name of “Jessica”, a name from my English grandmother – and we all know how many of those are running around! … so I ask, was Austen always this much in the news, or is it because I am just paying attention??

That said, here are several of the more interesting Austen-sitings from the past week or so – and this barely touches the surface!

*First must start with a reminder to check out the JASNA.org site for information on the 2010 AGM in Portland Oregon – it is more than half-full, so if you have thoughts of attending this sure-to-be-fabulous gathering in celebration of Northanger Abbey, best to send in your registration as soon as possible.

*The Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton has put their shop online through Trail Publishing – many goodies – treat yourself!

* Speaking of Chawton – Tony Grant on his London Calling blog has posted on “Why do we want to visit Chawton” with a wonderful photograph of the staircase from the second story – search “Jane Austen” on his blog and you will find a variety of other Austen-related posts. Tony is also writing a weekly column for the Jane Austen Today blog: this week a post on “Jane Austen and the English Country Garden” – lovely pictures and commentary!

*John Mullan, Austen and 18th century scholar [he spoke at the Philadelphia AGM on “Sisterly Chat”, one of my favorite talks – now in Persuasions 31 [2009], pp. 59-68, but alas! not yet online], has written a review of the newly released reprint of Maria Edgeworth’s Helen – hopefully rekindling interest in this Irish authoress, much read and admired by Jane Austen. You can read his review here at The Guardian.

See also Mullan’s article on Ten of the Best Pianos in Literature, where Emma makes the list:

It bruises Emma that Jane Fairfax is so very good at playing the piano (if only she had practised a little more). Jane’s prowess at the keyboard becomes central to the plot. Who could be the donor of the expensive instrument that is delivered to Miss Bates’s house, where Jane is staying? It must surely be a male admirer. Well, yes, but Emma’s deductions lead her very astray.

Of course, I would have added Sense & Sensibility [Marianne’s haven, Brandon struck by love-at-first-sight] and Pride & Prejudice [Darcy and Elizabeth at the piano at Rosings is quite the character-revealing scene – and who can forget Lady Catherine’s exclamations of her own talents!] – but the other nine listed are worthy opponents, and Austen can not take over every list!

* and more on Ms. Edgeworth last month at Foyle’s online: in “Jane Austen continues to surpass Maria Edgworth”

Rosemary Goring, the literary editor of the Herald, pointed out that Edgeworth was considered to be a ‘far more fashionable and illustrious’ author than Austen when the two were writing and still has fans today, as evidenced by her recently reissued Helen. However, she noted that it is Austen who has captured the hearts and imaginations of modern readers, partly due to her reluctance to moralise and her willingness to include immorality in her works. ‘Edgeworth’s fiction may have been the bestselling work of her era, making her the richest novelist alive, but where she thumps the table and cranks up the melodrama, Austen quietly rips the rug from under her characters and her readers,’ Goring added.

[from Foyle’s Bookstores website]

* …the ball, it is quite a settled thing; and as soon as Nicholls has made white soup enough, I shall send round my cards.” [P&P, ch. 11]

Julie at Austenonly has given us a rousing post on the history of that ever-to-be-understood “White Soup” – certainly one the shortest throwaway lines in literature to generate such a number of articles! A lovely post with numerous illustrations and recipes. Nicholls would heartily approve!

*I had the pleasure last year to attend a play at the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick in the Lake District. We saw “The Maid of Buttermere “- I now get all their mailings, and usually bemoan the fact that I on the wrong side of the pond, but never moreso than this season for the staging of Northanger Abbey adapted by Tim Luscombe- it runs from May 29 – November 5, 2010.

* “To be published May 2011, Professor Rachel Brownstein’s book Why Jane Austen? considers reasons why the nineteenth-century English novelist “became a star during the last 20 years.” Brownstein, who teaches at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, is a renowned Austen scholar. Her first book, Becoming a Heroine: Reading about Women in Novels (Viking, 1982), stemmed from encounters with women returning to Brooklyn College after raising children. Those students “had special interest in the situation of women and in nineteenth-century novels, first among them Jane Austen’s,” says Brownstein. “In this new book, I write about the ways that feminism, anti-feminism, and post-feminism, among other factors, have fed the popular passion for Jane.” [from the Brooklyn College website] – oh boy! another book to add to the mix of Sutherland’s Jane Austen’s Textual Lives and Harman’s Jane’s Fame…] – and Brownstein’s Becoming Heroine is a must have for your library… wonderful chapter on Austen…

* Sotheby’s recent auction of “Treasures Aristocratic Heirlooms” with a sale total of 13,951,250 GBP for a mere 21 items! – anything from Rosings or Pembererly?

[wine cistern of Thomas Wentworth: 2,505,250 GBP ]

And today, Sotheby’s auction of Old Masters and British Paintings Day Sale [July 8, 2010] – worth a look for such works of art as this Constable: [hammer price – 289,250 GBP] *For the Georgette Heyer fans out there, Sourcebooks will be releasing a reprint of Jennifer Kloester’s Georgette Heyer’s Regency World in August 2010: [an invaluable resource!]

“The definitive guide for all fans of Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen,
and the glittering Regency period”

*And Vic at the Jane Austen’s World blog has created another entirely new blog called Art & History Tour, a place for “historical posts and reviews not dealing with Jane Austen and the Regency era”… another lovely addition to cyberspace! [but hope this doesn’t take Vic away from “all things Austen” for too much of her time…]

* On LibraryThing: the Samuel Johnson Library [all information and links] and the listing of works in Johnson’s Undergraduate Library

* Visit the Novembers Autumn blog for a post on Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers: Sir Francis Austen

*the Teach Me Tonight blog has announced the August release of the first issue of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies ~ great articles with open access online. Visit the IASPR website for more information [the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance]

* and last but certainly not least, Mags at Austenblog has a whole new look! – she comes out swinging her “Clubat” at the Very-Deserving Glenn Beck – see her post here [what was he thinking?!]

[Posted by Deb]

May 27, 2009 by BookLady Deb

Jane’s ‘Dear Dr. Johnson’*

I direct you to my Bygone Books Blog for a short post on Samuel Johnson with news of an exhibit at the Huntington Library…

samjohnson_banner

[* from Letter 50, to Cassandra Austen. Le Faye edition, p. 121]

December 6, 2008 by BookLady Deb

Some Book Reviews of Note ~ All Things Austen

[These are some book notes and other Austen-related tidbits that I have picked up over the past few weeks ~ more book thoughts for holiday gift giving to be posted shortly, but this is a start]

samuel-johnson-cover Two new books about Samuel Johnson are reviewed by Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker in his article “Man of Fetters: Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale” ~ Peter Martin, Samuel Johnson [Harvard, 2008] and Jeffery Meyers, Samuel Johnson: The Struggle [Basic, 2008]

Reginald Hill, The Price of Butcher’s Meat [Harper, 2008] … NYTimes Book Review with Marilyn Stazio; Hill does Jane Austen in this story, a la Austen’s unfinished novel Sanditon with a story about Sandytown- in Yorkshire, and with all the usual suspects and detectives.

reginaldhill-cover

Mrs. Beeton’s The Art of Cookery, noted on Regency Reader; another Mrs. Beeton read is the biography The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton, the First Domestic Goddess, by Kathryn Hughes [Knopf, 2006] and now available in paperback. This study of Beeton also reveals much about the homelife of the Victorians.

“Mrs. Woolf and the Servants: an intimate history of domestic life in Bloomsbury” by Alison Light [Bloomsbury Press, 2008]. Review at the NY Times by Claire Messud.

“Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners”(Random House; $30), by Laura Claridge, is the first full-length biography of the author to appear. (Post’s son, Ned, published an affectionate, ghostwritten memoir, “Truly Emily Post,” back in 1961.) Here is a review in The New Yorker by Elizabeth Kolbert.

Madame de Stael: the first Modern Womanby Francine de Plessix Gray [Atlas, 2008]. Reviewed at Slate. by Stacey Schiff.

And this Our Life: Chronicles of the Darcy Family Book 1, by C. Allyn Pierson, and published by iuniverse, another sequel to Pride & Prejudice starting where P&P leaves off with Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s engagement and their first year of marriage. See this article at the Wall Street Journal online.

A found diary of a Victorian woman has recently been published: Ellen Tollet of Betley Hall by Mavis Smith. Tollet was an upper class woman who lived in North Staffordshire in the 1800s, and the diary runs from 1835-1890. Mavis Smith found the 160-year old manuscript hidden in the Shropshire library archives; click here for more information and how to obtain a copy [Waterstones, Amazon.uk and local museums]

A new book on the cultural history of Reading, England gives a nod to Jane Austen as she went to school there. See this article in the BBC Berkshire site.

The University of Manchester Library announces the acquisition of the Gaskell – Green letters (link is to Rare Book Review), adding to their already extensive Elizabeth Gaskell collection. “The Gaskell – Green family (Gaskell’s friend Mary Green and Mary’s daughter Isabella) letters offer fascinating insight into Cheshire town daily life, the place where Gaskell had grown up in the first half of the nineteenth century, and which she later immortalised in her novel Cranford.”

The short story competition sponsored by the Chawton House Library will have Sarah Waters, author of Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith(faboulous read by the way!), as the chair of the judging panel. “The competition is aimed at raising the profile of the library, which is home to a collection of books by early English women writers. The library is part of Chawton House, home to Jane Austen’s brother Edward. The shortlisted stories will be published as an anthology, Dancing with Mr Darcy, by independent publishers Honno in October 2009. First prize is £1000 plus a week’s writer’s retreat at Chawton House.”

Chawton House

[See this article at Bookseller.com as well as the Chawton House Library site for information on the competition.]

Here are a few blogs of note, lately discovered:

Idolising Jane authored by Old Fogey, asks some telling questions about Austen…see the blogfor some thoughtful posts [and with thanks to Ms. Place at Jane Austen Today]

Catherine Delors, historical novelist and author of Mistress of the Revolution, authors a wonderful blog titled Versailles and More, a visual feast of life during the French Revolution and 18th century France. Today, Ms. Delors offers a post on Saint Nicholas, the True Santa Claus.

Jane Austen in Vermont

Random Musings of a Janeite

Samuel Johnson

Austen on the Block! ~ A Lot of Lots!

c2013 Jane Austen in Vermont

The Places of Pride and Prejudice: Where, Oh Where, Did Wickham and Lydia Marry? Or the Dilemma of the Two St Clements

c2013 Jane Austen in Vermont

Jane Austen Cards for Every Occasion!

Copyright @2011 by Deb Barnum, of Jane Austen in Vermont.

Web Round-up ~ All Things Austen!

Jane’s ‘Dear Dr. Johnson’*

Some Book Reviews of Note ~ All Things Austen

c2013 Jane Austen in Vermont

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c2013 Jane Austen in Vermont

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Copyright @2011 by Deb Barnum, of Jane Austen in Vermont.

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