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  • sur l’imperfection des femmes. by ECOUTEZ LA VÉRITÉ ECOUTEZ LA VÉRITÉ ~ sur l’imperfection des femmes. [n.p., n.d., France or Low Countries, c. 1760-70s]
    A broadside catalogue of misogyny — with familiar and unfamiliar citations from Genesis, Augustine, Jonas, John Chrysostom, Gregory, Origen, Cato, Jerome, Tertullian, Plato and Pythagoras.… (more)

    A broadside catalogue of misogyny — with familiar and unfamiliar citations from Genesis, Augustine, Jonas, John Chrysostom, Gregory, Origen, Cato, Jerome, Tertullian, Plato and Pythagoras. Evidently intended as a satire it is known in more than one imprint, from France and from Ghent, but with only a small handful recorded in library collections. The Bibliothèque nationale holds two, one of which is digitised (having a woodcut, rather than typographical, headpiece).

    The sheet apparently already had a central horizontal crease when placed under the press, resulting in a blank horizontal line across the centre, portions of the affected letters arranged (without loss) above and below.

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  • Hogarth Modernised. The Harlot’s Progress. by (HOGARTH). (HOGARTH). ~ Hogarth Modernised. The Harlot’s Progress. London: J. L. Marks [c. 1830s].
    A rare modernising of Hogarth’s hugely popular series, first published in 1732, with numerous later copies and adaptation in image and word. This set gives… (more)

    A rare modernising of Hogarth’s hugely popular series, first published in 1732, with numerous later copies and adaptation in image and word. This set gives extended captions describing the fall of Miss Ann Hackabout and updates the costumes and settings. We can locate only the Illinois copy anywhere. Not in the BM catalogue,

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  • against sorcery, plague and natural disasters). by (‘BREVERL’ or AMULET (‘BREVERL’ or AMULET ~ against sorcery, plague and natural disasters). [South Eastern Germany or Austria, c. 1800].
    ‘Breverls’ or folding paper amulets were produced by, or on behalf of, nuns in the eighteenth century and sold to visitors and pilgrims to convent… (more)

    ‘Breverls’ or folding paper amulets were produced by, or on behalf of, nuns in the eighteenth century and sold to visitors and pilgrims to convent churches. They were carried by their owners, worn around the neck, sewn into clothing or tucked into pockets. Their combination of prints of saints invoked for protection against plague, sorcery and natural disaster is variable in different examples, but most examples include (as here) a panel of bituminised (tar) paper in which might be impressed small devotional objects, texts, scraps, or pieces of plant matter considered protective. These tar panels can be elaborate and even include tiny metal medals (which are lacking here) The elements of a breverl were usually pasted to a folding sheet (they are detached here) sealed, and placed into tightly fitting fabric or paper cases. They were not designed to be opened and indeed it was believed that doing so would nullify their efficacy. This example has no fabric case but retains its folding paper parcel with evidence of stitching along several edges. It comprises:

    - Folding letterpress prayer sheet, ‘Oratio contra omnes, tum maleficorum, tum daemonum incursus’ and Benediction of St Anthony of Padua on verso (195 × 135 mm)
    - Folding engraved Pestkreuz (plague cross) with saints and short magico-religious texts (155 × 110 mm)
    - 11 small engravings of patron saints (c. 65 × 46 mm each), comprising: the severed head of St. Anastasius (2 copies) Sts James of the March, John Nepomuk. Ignatius, Francis, Francis Seraphic Saint, Francis and Daniel and Anthony of Padua.
    - 3 small engravings (c. 65 × 46 and larger): The Conception, Calvary and a Christogram (IHS, with a heart).
    - Folding engraving with image and text, prayer to the Magi (88 × 35 mm)
    - a small engraved Pestkreuz (65 × 45 mm)
    - small double-sided letterpress gospel text of St John, 1: ‘In Amfang was das Wort...’ (75 × 28 mm)
    - small rectangle of bitumenised paper with fragments of two fabrics (one red), an engraved text (to the Virgin), the seed head of a plant, and impressions of several more objects (probably small metal medals) now missing. Ellen Ettlinger, ‘The Hildburgh Collection of Austrian and Bavarian Amulets in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum’ in Folklore, Summer, 1965, Vol. 76, No. 2 (Summer, 1965), pp. 110-111.

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  • [Five hand-coloured etched prints]. by (DANCE). (DANCE). ~ [Five hand-coloured etched prints]. London 1782-1817.
    [GILLRAY, James] The German Dancing Master. London: H[annah] Humphrey, April 5 1782. (188 × 242 mm, sheet size 215 ×272 mm). Closed tear (c. 120… (more)

    [GILLRAY, James] The German Dancing Master. London: H[annah] Humphrey, April 5 1782. (188 × 242 mm, sheet size 215 ×272 mm). Closed tear (c. 120 mm) to lower portion, neat old repair to verso, visible as a single line to recto. BM Satires, 6096.
    A dancing-master with a fiddle, said to be Jansen, the German ‘maître de ballet’ in London, instructs a fashionably-dressed young male pupil, whose moves are not elegant. A younger boy looks on. The imprint and initials are of Hannah Humphrey, one of the leading London printsellers, who published much of Gillray’s work and was his protector in later life.
    The Devonshire Minuet. London: William Holland, May 29 1813. (236 ×320 mm). Cut to plate mark. Two closed tears towards the foot, both with expert and unobtrusive old repairs. BM Satires, 12052.
    The debutante Princess Charlotte (daughter of George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, and Princess Caroline) dances with the young William Duke of Devonshire (son of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire and Lady Georgiana). Charlotte’s appearance in society after an adolescence of jealously guarded solitude, caused a sensation in London and her appearance at balls was widely reported and discussed. A tragic figure, she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg in 1816 and died the following year in childbirth. This is a light-hearted, sympathetic and uncaricatured depiction, showing approving ladies and gentlemen grouped on either side.
    WILLIAMS, Charles. Dos a Dos or Rumpti iddity ido. Natural Accidents in practising Quadrille Dancing. London: S.W. Fores, May 1817. (250 × 355 mm, sheet size 280 × 405 mm), marked ‘No 1’ in upper margin. Two tears towards the foot, both with neat old repairs, the second being to lower right corner with small (replaced) loss to the blank margin. BM Satires, 12933. Apparently an adaptation of an earlier print by Cruikshank.
    ― Wrong-Contre or Vis a Vis. Natural Accidents in Practising Quadrille Dancing. London: S.W. Fores, May 1817. (240 × 350 mm, cut to plate mark), marked No. 2 in upper margin. Lightly browned. BM Satires, 12934.
    ― Les Graces de Chesterfield. Or Quadrille Dancing – pour la Pratique. London: S.W. Fores, May 1817. (240 × 350 mm, sheet size 260 × 380 mm), marked No 3 in upper margin, early price stamp 1d to lower margin. BM Satires, 12935.
    Three of an original set of four rare Williams caricatures (the fourth was entitled Le Moulinet, or practising Quadrille Dancing at Home). The Quadrille was the dance craze of the 1817 season and entailed considerable practice, even among seasoned dancers. Numerous guides were printed and dancing masters offered tuition, evidently with mixed success.

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  • Quand j’étais homme.  Cahiers d’une femme … by LEMMONNIER, Camille. LEMMONNIER, Camille. ~ Quand j’étais homme.  Cahiers d’une femme … Paris: Louis-Michaud, [1907].
    First edition of a confessional novel by Lemonnier (1845–1913), the Belgian writer and art critic who ‘shared the aims of the French symbolists and stimulated… (more)

    First edition of a confessional novel by Lemonnier (1845–1913), the Belgian writer and art critic who ‘shared the aims of the French symbolists and stimulated a revival of Belgian letters’ (Oxford Companion to French Literature), in which the female narrator writes against a male-dominated society which leaves no room for the possibility of female emancipation such that she is driven to dress as a man. 
    This copy belonged to the ‘high priest of fin-de-siècle bibliophilia’ (Silverman, The New Bibliopolis, p. 14), Octave Uzanne (1851–1931).  One of only ten numbered copies printed on vergé de Hollande, it includes a unique printed presentation leaf, ‘Cet exemplaire a été imprimé spécialement pour M. Octave Uzanne’, tipped in as pp. 1–2 and inscribed ‘En fidèle souvenir mon cher Uzanne, le double homage de l’éditeur et de l’auteur.  Camille Lemonnier’. 
    ‘There is no more original Belgian artist than Camille Lemonnier.  A powerful and fertile writer, he represents Belgian literary activity for more than forty years, until his death in 1913, and even if he reflect the various tendencies of the French mind, and adapt himself to his surroundings, he is Flemish to the backbone in his mystico-sensual leanings, in his pious materialism, … in his Rubens-like fertility and love of colour, dash and force.  It is true that he reminds the reader of Zola, and even of Dickens; but it is above all of Rubens and Jordaens that he makes us think, because, like them, he paints his imagination in the form of ever sensitive emotions’ (Gladys Turquet-Milnes, Some modern Belgian Writers, 1916, p. 87).

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  • Petit Poèmes en prose. by ALEXEIEFF, Alexandre, illustrator. BAUDELAIRE, Charles. ALEXEIEFF, Alexandre, illustrator. BAUDELAIRE, Charles. ~ Petit Poèmes en prose. Paris: [Firmin-Didot for] La Société du Livre d’Art, 1934.
    Number 104 of 148 copies, this one for Monsieur Pierre Lehideux, with superb illustrations by the Russian-born Montparnasse artist Alexeieff, known for pioneering pinscreen animation… (more)

    Number 104 of 148 copies, this one for Monsieur Pierre Lehideux, with superb illustrations by the Russian-born Montparnasse artist Alexeieff, known for pioneering pinscreen animation in the 1930s. Carteret 219.

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  • Monsieur Vénus. Roman matérialiste. by RACHILDE [and] ‘Francis TALMAN’. RACHILDE [and] ‘Francis TALMAN’. ~ Monsieur Vénus. Roman matérialiste. Brussels: Auguste Brancart, 1884.
    First edition, first issue, complete with all subsequently censored text, including the final scene in which the heroine makes love to a partially animated transgender… (more)

    First edition, first issue, complete with all subsequently censored text, including the final scene in which the heroine makes love to a partially animated transgender mannequin. Rachilde, who was to style herself as a ‘man of letters’ on her calling cards was just 24 when Monsieur Vénus, her second novel was published in Brussels. The book caused an immediate scandal and was vigorously suppressed by the Belgian and French authorities. Subsequent editions were shorn of the novel’s more shocking passages, which were conveniently attributed to Rachilde’s (probably-fictitiou)s co-author ‘Francis Talman’, whose name appeared on the title page. Some critics refused to believe that a work which frankly recounted the pursuit of sexual pleasure by a noblewoman, Raoule de Vénérande, could possibly be the work of a young woman. It remains an unsettling work, describing Raoule’s treatment of her young male lover, Silvert, who she persistently feminizes and humiliates. Silvert ultimately dies at the hands of one of Raoule’s suitor’s in a duel, and is replaced by her with a mannequin (with real hair, teeth and fingernails) who can be alternately dressed in male and female clothes.

    The Belgian authorities sought to destroy as many copies of the first edition as possible, and it is accordingly a noted rarity. We can locate the following copies: BnF, Bibliothèque Jaques Doucet, Institut de France in France and Library of Congress, University of Houston, Vanderbilt University in North America, British Library and Cambridge in the UK and Kb in the Netherlands.

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  • Latimore, ou le plus infortuné des hommes au sein de l’opulence et des grandeurs. Nouvelle anglaise traduite sur la 5e édition de Splendid misery, by Thom Surr, author of Georges Barnwell etc. Par Joseph Martin... by SURR, Thom[as Skinner]. SURR, Thom[as Skinner]. ~ Latimore, ou le plus infortuné des hommes au sein de l’opulence et des grandeurs. Nouvelle anglaise traduite sur la 5e édition de Splendid misery, by Thom Surr, author of Georges Barnwell etc. Par Joseph Martin... Paris: [P.N. Rougeron for] Villet ‘et à Verdun’, 1807.
    A rare French edition of Surr’s Splendid Misery (1801), perhaps the first in French. It is one of two French translations of 1807, the other… (more)

    A rare French edition of Surr’s Splendid Misery (1801), perhaps the first in French. It is one of two French translations of 1807, the other entitled Splendeur et souffrance published by Maradan. It is not clear which was the first. Though little remembered, Surr’s several novels of fashionable British society were bestsellers in England and were much read in both France and Germany. He was born in London in c. 1770 and was educated at Christ’s Hospital before becoming a clerk at the Bank of England. Garside, Raven and Schöwerling, The English Novel 1770-1829, 1801, 64 (noting the Splendeur et souffrance edition only. Worldcat lists copies of Latimore at Bn and University of Illinois only; COPAC adds no British copies. For Splendeur et souffrance OCLC lists copies at Bn and Universities of Erfurt and Göttingen only; COPAC adds no British copies.

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  • Melaia; and other Poems. by COOK, Eliza. COOK, Eliza. ~ Melaia; and other Poems. London: [Cunningham and Salmon for] R. J. Wood, Dispatch Office, 1838.
    First edition of the second collection by this south London working class poet. ‘The sentiments expressed in Cook's poetry and prose reflect her efforts to… (more)

    First edition of the second collection by this south London working class poet. ‘The sentiments expressed in Cook's poetry and prose reflect her efforts to break free from the societal limitations imposed on her class and gender. A woman who prided herself on her tiny hands and feet, Cook dressed in unconventionally masculine attire and wore her hair short. J. Leach notes that Cook's dress 'proclaimed a determination to be herself' and relates how an 1851 story in the New York Times describes her as 'Tilting back in her chair, planting both feet on the fender', and 'bluffly order[ing] a glass of beer' (Leach, 157). Cook was also most probably a lesbian. She never married, and from 1845 to 1849 she was closely linked with the American actress Charlotte Cushman (1816–1876), to whom she wrote passionate poetic tributes ('To Charlotte Cushman')’ (Solveig C. Robinson in Oxford DNB).

    The frontispiece depicting ‘The Old Water Mill’ bears Baxter imprint and states ‘printed in oil colours’ while the title-page vignette (depicting an English ship at sea) is similarly printed. These examples date from the first decade of George Baxter’s patent for his colour prints in which an intaglio plate, usually aquatint, was printed first, and then colours added with up multiple woodblocks. In both prints the darker colours have a characteristic depth and sheen. Melaia was reprinted in 1840, but the first edition with Baxter prints is exceptionally scarce. Worldcat lists a single copy (UC Davis, Kohler collection), JISC lists UK copies at BL, Birmingham and Cambridge.

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  • Mirobolus Macadam & C[ompagn]ie. by (DUBUFFET, Jean). Michel TAPIÉ. (DUBUFFET, Jean). Michel TAPIÉ. ~ Mirobolus Macadam & C[ompagn]ie. Paris: [imprimerie Union for] R. Drouin, [April] 1946.
    First edition of the catalogue to Dubuffet’s second exhibition ‘Macrobolus et Cie’ in which he exhibited a large number of hauts pâtes paintings composed of… (more)

    First edition of the catalogue to Dubuffet’s second exhibition ‘Macrobolus et Cie’ in which he exhibited a large number of hauts pâtes paintings composed of earth, gravel, tar and sand. It proved to be a significant moment in the postwar art brut revolt against high art and learned culture and provoked a significantly negative response, both among critics and physically in the gallery. Two paintings were slashed and six others damaged. The pictures elicited a more favourable response in New York the following year.

    The catalogue was limited to 700 copies (this one is unnumbered) plus 30 copies with an original lithograph. This copy, inscribed by the author Michle Tapié is uncommonly well preserved (the rainbow wrappers are usually frayed).

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  • Part I. [?all published] of the English, French and Bengallee primer, or, An easy Vocabulary of fifteen hundred common Words for the Use of Youth... a New Edition. by (INDIA). JOHNSON, W[illiam] B[radford]. (INDIA). JOHNSON, W[illiam] B[radford]. ~ Part I. [?all published] of the English, French and Bengallee primer, or, An easy Vocabulary of fifteen hundred common Words for the Use of Youth... a New Edition. Calcutta: India Gazette Press by Scott and Co, [n.d, c. 1825-32].
    A rare trilingual juvenile vocabulary, the French with syllabic divisions, the Bengali with full early manuscript transliteration (in a single hand). The vocabulary is extensive,… (more)

    A rare trilingual juvenile vocabulary, the French with syllabic divisions, the Bengali with full early manuscript transliteration (in a single hand). The vocabulary is extensive, covering everyday necessities, including basic anatomy and health, clothing, foodstuffs, church and school, animals (mainly domestic), numbers, character, minerals and gems, crime and law, behavioural traits, military terms, trade and commerce, science and geography. The subscribers list contains circa 120 names, of which 31 are native Indians. Sir Charles Edward Grey (Chief Justice on the Supreme Court of Bengal 1825-1832) heads the list with six copies, while the first of the Indian subscribers is Maha Rajah Budenauth Roy. Despite the title statements we can identify no earlier edition, nor further part. We can locate copies at Bodley and Library of the American Oriental Society (Yale) only.

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  • Entretien sur Le Havre. by LE MASSON LE GOLFT, [Marie]. LE MASSON LE GOLFT, [Marie]. ~ Entretien sur Le Havre. Le Havre: chez les libraires, 1781.
    First edition of the the first book published by a notable French female scholar, who became celebrated as a naturalist and one of the first… (more)

    First edition of the the first book published by a notable French female scholar, who became celebrated as a naturalist and one of the first women elected to a scientific academy in France. The book is a historical and cultural study of her native city, presented as a dialogue between herself and a scholar, and was dedicated to the écoliers of the Collège du Havre. Trade and commerce are at the forefront, but the city’s literary heritage is celebrated, notably in the persons of Madame de Scudèry (born in Le Havre) and Madame de Lafayette (whose father was a city governor). Her own teacher, the astronomer and naturalist Jean-François Dicquemare is also considered,

    As one of the primary gateways of France, Le Havre participated in many of the country’s most significant exploits, including the transatlantic slave trade. In the Entretien, mademoiselle Le Masson Le Golft recounts a conversation on the slave trade. Her student, referring to a visit aboard a slave ship, tells her the impression made on him by the iron shackles on board, and asks: ‘Comment, me suis-je de en moi-même, avec des moeurs si douces, tant de lumières & de philosophie, la cupidité peut-elle nous porter à étendre cette tache sur notre siècle?’. His teacher is equivocal, saying she underrstands but that his regrets are useless and they will discuss this at greater leisure. While Le Masson Le Golft is usually portrayed as an opponent of slavery, her attitudes may have been ambivalent. Rare: Worldcat locates no copy outside France, even though the author’s later works are well represented in libraries.

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  • ou Tableau du Libertinage de Paris. Avec la vie de plusieurs filles célèbres de ce siècle. by Correspondance d’Eulalie. Correspondance d’Eulalie. ~ ou Tableau du Libertinage de Paris. Avec la vie de plusieurs filles célèbres de ce siècle. ‘Londres’: Jean Nourse, 1785.
    A scandalous epistolary novel purporting to be the genuine correspondence of fashionable Parisian prostitutes, courtesans and actresses in 1782 and 1783. It is full of… (more)

    A scandalous epistolary novel purporting to be the genuine correspondence of fashionable Parisian prostitutes, courtesans and actresses in 1782 and 1783. It is full of detail on life in the theatres, on the racecourse and in the salons of the fashionable rich. There are elegant orgies, unexpected lesbian encounters, cross-dressing, petty theft and continual financial worries. This is the expanded edition (with 16 additional letters) of Lettres de Julie à Eulalie (Londres, 1784). It includes erotic and comic verses and songs.

    It was widely read and extremely popular. James Boswell owned a copy (Bibliotheca Boswelliana, 1825), p. 24, 739. The imprint is certainly false, and the BnF catalogue suggests a German origin on the basis of typography. The occasional attribution to Mirabeau is incorrect, arising from confusion of the earlier title of his novel Ma Conversion (see Kearney, History of Erotic Literature, p. 77). Gay I, 819: ‘Lettres d’une courtisanne, qui après de longs déréglements, épousa un lord anglais, et devint une femme vertueuse’. Worldcat locates three copies only (BL, BnF and Anna Amalia Library, Weimar)

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  • Tales of Fashionable Life. by EDGEWORTH, Maria. EDGEWORTH, Maria. ~ Tales of Fashionable Life. London: [S. Hamilton, Weybridge, vol 1; Wood and Innes, vol. 2; W. Pople, vol. 3] for J. Johnson, 1809.
    First collected edition of the first series of Tales of Fashionable Life, Edgeworth’s most ambitious literary project. containing Ennui, Almeria, Madame de Fleury, The Dun,… (more)

    First collected edition of the first series of Tales of Fashionable Life, Edgeworth’s most ambitious literary project. containing Ennui, Almeria, Madame de Fleury, The Dun, Manoeuvring. In his preface, Richard Lovell Edgeworth notes his daughter's aim ‘to promote, by all her writings, the progress of education, from the cradle to the grave’, and that the present and envisaged volumes of the series were ‘intended to point out some of those errors, to which the higher classes of society are disposed’. A second series appeared in 1812, for which she received £1050 making her the most commercially successful novelist of her age.

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  • Selected Letters... adapted for the use of Learners by A. J. Lastdrager. by MONTAGUE, Lady Mary Wortley. MONTAGUE, Lady Mary Wortley. ~ Selected Letters... adapted for the use of Learners by A. J. Lastdrager. The Hague and Amsterdam: Van Cleef brothers, 1827.
    First edition of this Dutch-printed schoolbook, reproducing the English text of selected Montague letters with a foreword and extensive footnotes in Dutch, edited by educationalist… (more)

    First edition of this Dutch-printed schoolbook, reproducing the English text of selected Montague letters with a foreword and extensive footnotes in Dutch, edited by educationalist Abraham Johannes Lastdrager (1788-1855) who had founded a successful academy for young ladies in Amsterdam around 1820. The advert leaf lists a further thirteen educational titles in Dutch and French. No US or UK copies located in Worldcat or JISC.

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  • The Admission of Women to the Scottish Universities. by [STRUTHERS, Christina]. [STRUTHERS, Christina]. ~ The Admission of Women to the Scottish Universities. [Aberdeen, 1883].
    First separate edition, scarce. Only in 1889 did the The Universities (Scotland) Act establish a legal framework that allowed universities to make arrangements for women… (more)

    First separate edition, scarce. Only in 1889 did the The Universities (Scotland) Act establish a legal framework that allowed universities to make arrangements for women to study and graduate, and until 1892, women at Scottish universities could not receive a degree. Christina Struthers’s polemical essay, which preceded the early meetings of the Executive Commission for the Scottish Universities. It first appeared in the Aberdeen Newspaper. WorldCat: Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews only.

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  • The Women of Hindu Homes. by (INDIA). [M’MORDIE, William]. (INDIA). [M’MORDIE, William]. ~ The Women of Hindu Homes. Belfast: James Hutchinson, 1880.
    First edition A very rare tract on Indian female domestic life, and in particular the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. The only reference we have… (more)

    First edition A very rare tract on Indian female domestic life, and in particular the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. The only reference we have encountered is a review that appeared in the early feminist journal, The Englishwoman’s Review of Social and Industrial Questions: ‘A useful little pamphlet describing the misery prevalent in India from the universal practice of children’s marriages, and the helplessly enslaved condition of daughters-in-law. Any publication which directs the attention of Englishwomen to the immense field for exertion which awaits them among the unfortunate women of the East, are welcome.’ The author had been a missionary in India and was, at the time of writing, a leading member of the Presbyterian General Assembly of Northern Ireland. Unlocated in library catalogues.

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  • List of Members of the Somerville Club, 405, Oxford Street, W... [Opened February 21st, 1881]. by (SOMERVILLE CLUB). (SOMERVILLE CLUB). ~ List of Members of the Somerville Club, 405, Oxford Street, W... [Opened February 21st, 1881]. London: Women’s Printing Society Limited, 1884.
    Apparently very rare (no copies located in the usual databases). The Somerville Club was the first women’s club founded in London, for graduates of Somerville… (more)

    Apparently very rare (no copies located in the usual databases). The Somerville Club was the first women’s club founded in London, for graduates of Somerville College, Oxford (the women’s college founded in 1879). It lists over 700 members and 47 committee members. The club was founded by the geologist and educationist Catherine Raisin (she appears in both lists here); other early members included the pioneer doctor Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the physician, Matilda Ayrton and the journalist and educationist, Jane Chessar and Octavia Hill (founder of the National Trust). Its principals were democratic, insisting that class was no barrier to membership, and mutually sustaining, ‘to provide a place where women engaged in different kinds of work, and having different experiences of life, could meet together and learn to know and help one another’.

    The list was printed by the Women’s Printing Society Limited founded by Emma Paterson and Emily Faithfull in the 1870s.

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  • Les Ecosseuses: ou Les Oeufs de Pasques. by VADÉ, Jean-Joseph; Anne-Claude-Philippe comte de CAYLUS; Jeanne Baptiste d’Albert de Luynes, comtesse de VERRUE. VADÉ, Jean-Joseph; Anne-Claude-Philippe comte de CAYLUS; Jeanne Baptiste d’Albert de Luynes, comtesse de VERRUE. ~ Les Ecosseuses: ou Les Oeufs de Pasques. ‘Troyes’ [but Paris]: chez la Veuve Oudoy, 1745.
    First edition with the delightful woodcut frontispiece of two pea shellers, evidently cut by the comte de Caylus himself after a drawing and engraving by… (more)

    First edition with the delightful woodcut frontispiece of two pea shellers, evidently cut by the comte de Caylus himself after a drawing and engraving by Edme Bouchardon. The imprint of widow Oudoy at Troyes is considered false, and the book was probably printed in Paris. The combination of frontispiece and imprint serves to give the work a popular character (Troyes being a well-known centre of chapbook production), appropriate for a collection composed in the genre poissard reproducing contemporary street language — a collection of tales and anecdotes purporting to be told by six women (’commeres’) in a butcher’s shop. The authorship is composite, with contributions from populist Vadé and the comte de Caylus and comtesse de Verrue, members of a Parisian salon, the ‘Société du Bout-du-Banc,around the hostess Jeanne-Françoise Quinault. An edition had previously appeared in 1739, with a different pagination and without the woodcut and extra title.

    The woodcut reproduces one of Bouchardon’s wonderful series of Cris de Paris series of drawings, immortalising the ordinary people of Paris in age where so many illustrations were purely aristocratic. It is signed with initials ‘B’ and ‘C’ on either side, for Bouchardon and Caylus respectively. Barbier, 1, 359, 4695; cf. Gay II. p. 182 (Etrennes de la Saint-Jean, the collection in which it was also included).

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  • The Maid of Saragossa. Engraved by Samuel Cousins, A.R.A from the Original Picture in the Royal Collection, painted in Madrid by Sir David Wilkie. by WILKIE, David. Samuel COUSINS, engraver. WILKIE, David. Samuel COUSINS, engraver. ~ The Maid of Saragossa. Engraved by Samuel Cousins, A.R.A from the Original Picture in the Royal Collection, painted in Madrid by Sir David Wilkie. London: [J. Moyes for] F. G. Moon, [1837].
    First edition of this rare explanatory pamphlet issued to accompany the 1837 issue of Samuel Cousins’ popular engraving after Wilkie. The engraved key gives a… (more)

    First edition of this rare explanatory pamphlet issued to accompany the 1837 issue of Samuel Cousins’ popular engraving after Wilkie. The engraved key gives a numbered explanation of the picture while the text gives the historical account, complete with excerpts from Byron.

    David Wilkie’s celebrated painting of 1828, immediately purchased for the Royal Collection commemorates the two-month siege of Saragossa in 1808, when the local guerrilla leader Don José de Palafox y Melci led heroic, ill-equipped citizens to victory. This episode in the Spanish struggle for independence from Napoleon had also been commemorated in poetry and prose, most notably by Byron in ‘Childe Harold's Pilgrimage’. In the picture Agostina Zaragoza (the ‘Maid of Saragossa’) lights the fuse in the cannon which Palafox, dressed as a volunteer, directs with Father Consolaçion, an Augustinian friar. Worldcat lists the Harvard copy only.

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