89 KENNEY, Annie. Memories of a Militant. London: Edward Arnold & Co., 1924 with the scarce jacket First edition, first impression, of Kenney’s autobiography, a passionate account of the militant suffrage movement, preceded only by Emmeline Pankhurst’s (1914). This copy is exceptional for retaining the original dust jacket correctly priced 16/- net on the spine; as a result, the cloth is particularly bright and unmarked. Although well-represented institutionally, we can trace no copies in commerce. Octavo. Original purple cloth, spine and front cover lettered in green, thick concentric green and white horizontal lines at spine ends continuing across front cover. With pictorial dust jacket. Photographic portrait frontispiece of Kenney with tissue guard, 7 photographic plates showing portraits of Christabel Pankhurst, Emmeline Pankhurst, Constance Lytton, Emmeline Pethick Lawrence, Flora McKinnon Drummond, Mabel Tuke, and Jessie Kenney. With 16-page publisher’s advertisements at rear dated Autumn 1924. Ownership inscription in pencil on front free endpaper dated 1946. Extremities lightly rubbed and bumped, cloth faded at spine ends corresponding with loss to jacket, else the colours very bright, book block spotted; contents overwhelmingly crisp and clean, with very occasional foxing (including to advertisements), some creasing and a few nicks to frontispiece, endpapers browned; jacket faded and marked, four spots of discolouration on spine panel, some loss and closed tears at edges, a few of which stabilised on verso with archival tape. In very good condition, preserving the rare dust jacket. £3,250 [146974] 90 LAFARGE, Marie. Grande complainte sur le Procès Lafarge et sur les alchimistes ais; [together with:] Quelques vérités nouvelles sur le procès Lafarge. Paris: Aubert; Toulouse: Jean-Mattieu Douladoure, [1840] & 1847 two pamphlets on the marie lafarge trial First editions of two pamphlets relating to the sensational Lafarge trial, which captivated France. The 23-year old Parisian Marie Lafarge (1816–1852), of noble descent, was married against her will to Charles Lafarge, a foundry owner who claimed to be wealthy but was in fact bankrupt. He received a cake in the mail from his wife, and died soon after from arsenic poisoning. The following trial aroused great public interest, and is important as one of the earliest public trials to extensively use forensic evidence, which nonetheless was contradictory and saw much dispute among the experts. People travelled from across Europe to witness the trial, and there were prominent pro- and anti-Lafarge factions active in the press and issuing pamphlets. She was found guilty – the first known person to be convicted with modern forensic toxicology – and sentenced to life imprisonment. She was released in 1852 with tuberculosis and died the same year, protesting her innocence to the last. The first publication is a pro-Lafarge poem, in the style of the tune of “Joseph trahi par sa famille”, with an illustration of Lafarge and of a rat. The second is a detailed rejection of the medical evidence given by Mathieu Orfila, evidence which was extensively used in the case. The author presents himself as a
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former doctor of Marie’s family, and protests Orfila’s conclusion and the ambiguity of his report. He argues that the administration to Charles of a large dose of colcotar, an oxide with the same properties of arsenic, by his physician before his death instead accounts for the appearance of arsenic in his system. Two works, octavo. Grande complainte : original self-wrappers, loosely inserted into sleeve of red ribbed paper boards with vellum spine (once sewn, now loose); Quelques vérités : original printed paper wrappers. Grande complainte with portrait of Lafarge on verso of title and image of rat on terminal page; Quelques vérités with folding facsimile of handwriting and folding table. Grande complainte : early 20th-century monogram book label of “JM” to front pastedown of sleeve, contents foxed. Quelques vérités : light wear at extremities with loss to rear wrapper at foot, lighter foxing. Both very good copies. ¶ Gilles Castroviejo, Dictionnaire passionnel de Marie Lafarge , 2016, pp. 505 & 357. £825 [162011]
of the nobility and an array of highly ranked members of the government, the army, the navy, and the clergy” (Kennedy, pp. 170–1). Headed by the Princess Royal, to whom the work was dedicated, the list includes the poets Sarah Dixon, the Countess of Hertford, and Elizabeth Carter, plus Samuel and Nathaniel Buck, David Garrick, and Horace Walpole. The Notes and Queries’ article on “Books by Subscription” recorded that 332 copies were printed on royal paper, of which the present is one such example (ibid.). Commercial publication of the plainer format “followed only when the subscribers’ copies had been delivered and it was not generally advertised until early 1752, accompanied by a minor publicity campaign” (Lonsdale, p. 156). Large octavo (231 × 137 mm). Contemporary red morocco, twin black morocco spine labels, the first lettered “Miscellanies”, elaborately tooled in gilt, boards bordered with single gilt fillet and triangular roll, large gilt cornerpieces comprised of leaf, fleuron, and scroll motifs, each encompassing three roundels encircling a two-headed griffin, gilt roll to board edges and turn-ins, marbled endpapers, edges gilt, green silk bookmarker. Engraved head- and tailpieces. Later engraved armorial bookplate of the Littlecote estate to front pastedown, later small printed label of E. W. Leyborne Popham neatly clipped and pasted to front free endpaper verso, marginal pencil mark next to Sir Edward Popham’s name in the list of subscribers. Extremities lightly rubbed, spine somewhat dulled, front joint a little tender at foot with a few tiny wormholes to it and rear joint, boards faintly scuffed in places with one instance of stripping to rear, short tear to foot of front free endpaper at gutter but holding very firm, pencilled initials to title page verso; a crisp, clean copy with the very occasional faint smudge to margins and splendidly bound. ¶ Foxon, p. 391 (lists a “fine paper” copy). Deborah Kennedy, Poetic Sisters: Early Eighteenth-Century Women Poets , 2013; Roger Lonsdale, ed., Eighteenth-Century Women Poets: An Oxford Anthology , 1989. £6,750 [134908]
in Oxford, and Mr. Frederick in Bath, 1750 a woman studies at the bodleian
First edition of the author’s only book, a beautifully bound subscriber’s copy, one of approximately 330 copies printed on royal paper, this from the library of Sir Edward Popham of Littlecote. The collection contains several essays, the first being a fantasy in which a woman studies in the Bodleian Library and is conferred an honorary degree with the title “Mistress of Arts” from Oxford University (“Abstract of an Order of Convocation in relation to Melissa’s taking off Medals, &c. in Paper”, pp. 159–64). Born in Oxford, where she lived all her life, Mary Jones (1707–1778) was a well-connected poet and letter-writer whose work was greatly influenced by Alexander Pope. Samuel Johnson called her the “Chantress” – a play on her occupation, her brother’s position as “chanter” at Christ Church cathedral, and a Miltonic reference – and she counted among her friends a host of literary figures including Charlotte Lennox (see item 95), publisher and critic Ralph Griffiths, and Thomas Warton. She later worked as postmistress for Oxford and, at the time of her death, owned five houses in the city. Miscellanies in Prose and Verse , her most famous work, was published by subscription in 1750. The distinguished list of 1,680 subscribers was “a major form of recognition, since an average subscription list in the 18th century would have about two hundred names, and anything with over one thousand subscribers was considered a noteworthy accomplishment . . . She sold a large number of lavish editions on royal paper, with at least a dozen purchased by members of the Beauclerk family [into which her friend Martha Lovelace had married] . . . It had one of the largest and most illustrious lists of subscribers on record, with nearly two hundred members
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
LOUDER THAN WORDS
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