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156 [VIGOR, Jane.] Letters from a Lady who resided some Years in Russia, to her Friend in England. London: printed for J. Dodsley, 1775 Small octavo (157 × 95 mm). Contemporary marbled boards, rebacked in calf, red morocco spine label, raised bands, edges sprinkled red. Folding plate at rear showing the line of succession of the Romanov family. Cor- ners bumped, boards scuffed and their extremities worn with a few shallow knocks, closed tear to folding plate neatly repaired at verso, else a very good, clean copy. first edition of this first-hand account of life in russia by the travel writer Jane Vigor, told through a playful and sophisti- catedly constructed series of letters which “offer a unique eyewit- ness account of imperial and expatriate society at St Petersburg” ( ODNB ). Jane Vigor (1699–1783) married her first husband, Thomas Ward, consul-general to Russia and agent of the Russia Company, in 1728, and accompanied him to St Petersburg. Though Ward died in 1731, Jane married his successor to the post, Claudius Rondeau, soon thereafter, and continued to live in Russia. Rondeau’s death in 1739 meant Jane’s return to England, where she promptly married her third husband, William Vigor, a merchant whom she had met on her voyage home. The present work, which describes Jane’s experiences in the diplomatic circles attending Peter II’s and Anna’s reigns between 1728 and 1739, was published anonymously in 1775 and was very favourably received, praised in particular for its perceptive and witty portraits of members of the Anglo-Russian community and lively retellings of courtly anecdotes and intrigues. It was almost immediately translated into German, French, and Dutch, and the second corrected edition in English was published in 1777. Another collection, Eleven Additional Letters from Russia , was published post- humously in 1784. The documentary significance of Jane Vigor’s Letters has “received very little attention outside Russian history of the post-Petrine period, but . . . they are extremely useful for un- derstanding the contribution of travel to women’s participation in the literary public sphere, in the 1730s and again in the 1770s (both periods which saw a relative ‘surge’ in numbers of women’s travel narratives)” (O’Loughlin, p. 123).
Cross, Anthony, An Annotated Bibliography of First-hand English-language Accounts of the Russian Empire (1613–1917), C3; O’Loughlin, Katrina, Women, Writing, and Travel in the Eighteenth Century , Cambridge University Press, 2018. £1,000 [128705] 157 WAKEFIELD, Priscilla. The Traveller in Asia. London: printed for Darton, Harvey, and Darton, 1817 Duodecimo (172 × 101 mm). Contemporary calf, rebacked preserving the original spine, red morocco spine label, compartments elaborately tooled in gilt, raised bands, double gilt fillet to boards, grey endpapers, edges sprin- kled red. Engraved folding map, the border and route faintly coloured in red. Bound without the final advertisement leaf. Armorial bookplate of S. H. Sherard to front pastedown, contemporary gift inscription to a female pupil in ink to first blank leaf, dated 17 June 1826. Extremities gently rubbed with a few tiny marks to boards, the rear board very slightly bowed, endpapers browned from turn-ins, tear to map at the fold not affecting legibility, overall a bright, clean copy. first edition of the author’s final book, relatively well-rep- resented institutionally but notably scarce in commerce. Wakefield (1750–1832) was a prominent Quaker philanthropist whose writings on feminist economics and science did much to encourage wom- en’s increased involvement in education and publishing. She is credited as the first woman to write scientific books for children, and her Reflections on the Present Condition of the Female Sex (1798), partly written in response to Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations , advocated a sweeping extension of the economic opportunities open to women. “She was most widely known, however, as a pioneering travel writ- er for young readers. Wakefield was only an armchair traveller but she did her research, cites sources, and includes maps. A Family Tour through the British Empire (1804; 15th edn, 1840) is replete with geographical details about England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Other books take the young people of the Middleton family around London and to America, Canada, Africa, and Asia” ( ODNB ). Her most successful work, The Juvenile Travellers , initiated a series of six books about an English family journeying around Europe to pro- mote the general improvement of their children; it ran to 19 edi- tions over 50 years. £675 [124877]
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