MEMOIRS OF EMINENT ENGLISHWOMEN

London: Richard Bentley, 1844. FIRST EDITION. 220 x 138 mm. (8 3/4 x 5 1/2"). Four volumes..
HANDSOME BURGUNDY MOROCCO BY BAYNTUN (stamp-signed in gilt on front turn-ins), covers with triple gilt-ruled frame interlinking with a triple-gilt-ruled diamond, raised bands with gilt dots, gilt ruled compartments with gilt diamond shapes, gilt lettering, gilt-ruled turn-ins with a floral tool at each corner, all edges gilt. With 18 portraits as called for, four of these with hand coloring, and EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH AN ADDITIONAL 60 PLATES. Only the barest hint of wear to extremities, spines just a shade darker than covers, a handful of portraits a bit foxed, but A FINE SET, clean and fresh internally, the bindings lustrous, and the set obviously very little used.

This is a very attractively bound set containing the biographies of 38 notable Englishwomen, extra-illustrated with plates depicting some of the people and places integral to the subjects' lives. Covering the period from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to the 18th century, these four volumes include many women of noble birth and position, such as Arabella Stuart, Elizabeth Cromwell, and Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia; poets and artists such as Susanna Centlivre, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and Mary Beale; and women famous for their fantastic deeds, such as Jane Lane, who assisted Charles II during his escape after the Battle of Worcester. Our author Louisa Stuart Costello (1799-1870) was a miniaturist, poet, and writer of biographies, travel stories, and fiction. According to DNB, "her biographies of royal and noble women--which clearly traded on the popularity of similar works by Lucy Aikin, the Strickland sisters, and Mary Anne Everett Green--were creditable examples of this literary genre and generally involved some original research." For the present work, Costello relied heavily on access to the library and papers of the duke of Devonshire, whom she thanks in her introduction. In addition to 18 portraits called for in the contents (several of which were drawn by Costello herself), this set has been "grangerized" with 60 additional plates that further illustrate the life and times of these illustrious women. The lustrous bindings by an eminent British firm are an additional source of pleasure, making a beautiful appearance on the shelf..