Going Antiquing at the Booksale

Here in New England, May through October is the traditional season for library booksales.  Many of our regional libraries hold massive sales with hundreds of thousands of volumes, featuring books old and new, on every subject under the sun.  Quite often, they also feature special rare and antique book rooms with treasures that have been priced by local antiquarian book dealers.  Today, we made a bunch of pretty nifty discoveries and came home many pounds heavier for all the books in Ashley's trunk!

By far my most favorite find was an 1853 bound volume of Godey's Lady's Book, which includes all of the original color plates.  If there's sufficient interest, let me know and I can try to start scanning or photographing the issues (or at the very least the plates) and posting them here on the blog. Here's a quick sample:

Another pretty exciting discovery were two early Harper and Brothers printings of Charlotte Bronte's The Professor and Villette.  The Professor is dated 1864 on the title page; Villette is undated, but I'm assuming it must be from about the same time because of the consistent type, layout, and binding.  As you can see, "Currer Bell" is still listed as the author on the title pages of both.

My other thrill was finding two 1953 London newspapers - one The Sunday Times and one the Daily News - covering the coronation of Elizabeth II.  The Daily News paper is a special commemorative issue with loads of neat pictures.

Ashley's highlight of the day was bringing home a 1900 edition of The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, which collects quotations from Thomas Jefferson on over 9000 topics and arranges them alphabetically to form a catalogue of the president's thoughts.

All in all, a pretty successful booksale day!

Literary Treasures

This morning, the Two Nerdy History Girls shared the news that a very special little piece of literary history is coming up for auction on 10 July, and it's such a unique treasure that I couldn't help but pass the word along.

This subdued yet stunning blue odontalite (a popular early-19th-century turquoise substitute) ring with its gold setting (and original box) was once treasured and worn by Jane Austen and bequeathed to her sister Cassandra at her death.  It is tiny - only a size 5 1/2 - and its simplicity, as the auction catalogue observes, is consistent with what we know about Austen's subtle taste in jewelry and fashion.  The ring has been passed down through generations of women in the Austen family for almost two hundred years, kept so close and guarded a secret that its very existence was unknown outside the family until now.  One can't help but feel a bit sad to see it depart from that venerable genealogy after so long, but we can only hope it will continue to be lovingly cared for wherever it travels next.

Ring owned by Jane Austen.

Sotheby's lot 59, 10 July 2012.

Image linked from Sotheby's online catalogue.

Also up for auction that same day (in case you just happen to have some extra funds lying around, of course!) are four additional lots (55, 56, 57, and 58) of first editions of all but one of Austen's novels.  With initial print runs that numbered from only about 1,000 (Sense and Sensibility) to 2,000 (Emma) copies, these are rare, highly-sought after collector's finds, as the $31,000-$47,000 auction estimate for Pride and Prejudice alone attests.  The early publishing history of Austen's works is fascinating; check out this excellent post from The Cataloguer's Desk if you'd like to learn more.

And as if that wasn't enough of an embarrassment of English literary riches, the same catalogue also includes two pencil drawings by Charlotte Bronte.  The first (lot 60), "Derwent Water," is titled, autographed, and dated in the author's own hand.  The other (lot 61) is a portrait of a young lady, inscribed beneath by Patrick Bronte, stating it to be "By my daughter Charlotte."  A 1907 collected edition of the works of the Bronte sisters used this sketch as the frontispiece for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, suggesting it was an image of Anne Bronte, but as the auction catalogue indicates, that attribution is questionable.  What is perhaps most fascinating about this particular piece, though, is the fact that it was drawn on the reverse of another pencil sketch, a corner of which remains to tantalize the imagination.

A pencil sketch by Charlotte Bronte, dated to approximately 1835.

Sotheby's lot 61, 10 July 2012.

Image linked from Sotheby's online catalogue.

Fashioning Charlotte Bronte

The home museum of a famous authoress may not seem, on first consideration, a primary source for extant period garments and fashionable accessories. But when I visited the Bronte Parsonnage Museum nine years ago, I was thrilled and very pleasantly surprised to find a display of gowns and some accessories owned and worn by Charlotte Bronte herself. The exhibit, which was set up in Charlotte's bedroom, included several gowns, a couple of bonnets, gloves, shoes, and some pieces of jewelry. The Bronte Parsonnage Museum has recently made most of their collection available in a searchable online database, so I thought it would be only fitting to highlight some of my favorite pieces of clothing once worn by one of my all-time-favorite writers.

The Bronte Parsonnage, March 2003.

Charlotte Bronte's letters are full of discussions about fashion, yard goods, selecting bonnets, and making up gowns. She was a very petite woman; some acquaintances found her child-like and slightly old-fashioned. Her publisher, George Smith, wrote after her death that, "'I must confess that my first impression of Charlotte Brontë's personal appearance was that it was interesting rather than attractive. She was very small, and had a quaint old-fashioned look. Her head seemed too large for her body. She had fine eyes, but her face was marred by the shape of the mouth and by the complexion. There was but little feminine charm about her." Her sense of dress was modest; she once purchased a bonnet that seemed "grave and quiet" and demure enough in the shop, but worried once she got it home that its pink lining was "infinitely too gay" for her taste.

The gowns in the Bronte Parsonnage Museum collection reflect the elegant simplicity of Charlotte's tastes. This one, a striped muslin printed with a small pattern, is very pretty and feminine, but has only the slightest amount of embellishment in the form of small frills on the bodice and the sleeves.

Printed muslin gown worn by Charlotte Bronte.

Bronte Parsonnage Museum item acquisition #D8.

Photo linked from the online database of the Bronte Parsonnage Museum.

When Charlotte was married on 29 June 1854 to Arthur Bell Nicholls, she wore a very simple, delicate white muslin gown and a green silk and lace bonnet. The bonnet has survived, but the gown was destroyed at the request of Nichols after his death in 1906 (Charlotte, of course, had died in 1855, only 9 months after their marriage). A replica was made reportedly by memory (by whose hands and from whose memory I have not been able to discover), however, and it is currently in the collection of the BPM, as is the wedding bonnet.

Replica of Charlotte Bronte's wedding gown.

Bronte Parsonnage Museum item acquisition #2003/17.

Photo linked from the online database of the Bronte Parsonnage Museum.

Elizabeth Gaskell wrote in The Life of Charlotte Bronte that, "The news of the wedding had slipt abroad before the little party came out of church, and many old and humble friends were there, seeing her look 'like a snow-drop,' as they say. Her dress was white embroidered muslin, with a lace mantle, and white bonnet trimmed with green leaves, which perhaps might suggest the resemblance to the pale wintry flower."

Charlotte Bronte's wedding bonnet, 1854.

Bronte Parsonnage Museum item acquisition #D2.

Photo linked from the online database of the Bronte Parsonnage Museum.

For another, closer-up view of the bonnet, check out this photo from flickr.

Charlotte's "going away" dress as in keeping with both her newly-married status and her preference for simple styles and subdued fabrics. It is made of a silver and mauve/lavendar striped shot silk, and features three pleats to fit the front bodice, which closes down center front with hooks and eyes. The collar and the sleeve cuffs are edged in velvet, and the musuem describes the waist detailing as "formed into small triangles, lined in cream silk fabric and trimmed with matching silk 10 pointed zig-zag fringing." It's very difficult to see this from the museum's picture (included below), and I honestly can't recall taking specific note of it myself when I saw it in person. Ah well, yet another excuse to have to go back again...:-)

Charlotte Bronte's "going away" dress, 1854.

Bronte Parsonnage Museum item acquisition #D74.1.

Photo linked from the online database of the Bronte Parsonnage Museum.

Has anyone ever attempted to do a reproduction of any of these gowns?  Ever since I saw the last one at Haworth, I've been sorely tempted to try my hand at recreating it, but the proper fabric has proven elusive thus far.  The search continues, so stay tuned!

**Update: Saturday, 31 March 2012**

Most exciting news!  Jenni has just informed me that the Northern Society of Costume and Textiles, based in the UK, has produced a scaled pattern of Charlotte's "going away" dress!  The pattern can be ordered directly from their website at a very reasonable cost.  You know where I'm headed right now...:-)  Many thanks to Jenni for sharing this discovery!