Women, Country Houses, and Perspective
From Charles Wood
Books about women, country houses, and persective from Charles Wood
By Michael Stillman
What do women, country houses and perspective have in common? For one, they are all topics of Charles Wood's latest catalogue (I must admit that I'm stumped as to what the second connection might be). This is a three part catalogue with the following headings: Part I – Books By and About Women; Part II – English Country Houses; and Part III – Perspective. Parts II and III are clearly niche fields of collecting, while Part I will appeal to a broader audience.
Item 12 is a collection of works assembled for the Congress of Women held at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The compiler, Mary Kavanaugh Oldham Eagle was, like Hillary Clinton, a first lady...of Arkansas. Her husband had been elected under controversial circumstances, but this doesn't matter here. Mrs. Eagle put together this work of 220 papers by 180 women, covering topics such as "Complete Freedom for Women", "Economic Independence of Women", "Our Forgotten Foremothers", and "Changing Ideals in Southern Womanhood". Priced at $300.
Item 36 is the catalogue for the Portland Museum collection which had been owned by the Duchess Dowager of Portland. This auction began on April 24, 1786, and continued for 37 days. In all, 4,156 lots were offered for sale. It covered everything from furniture and coins and books to insect and birds’ eggs collections. The most noted item was the "Portland Vase", which sold for the then astonishing price of £1,029. Bound with this copy is a list of prices realized. $2,250.
Item 24 is Elizabeth B. Johnson's 1889 (sixteenth) edition of the Visitor’s Guide to Mount Vernon. This is a thorough guidebook to this historic site from a time closer to Washington's life than it is to today. Charles Wood notes that 19th century American guidebooks are rare books to find today. $100.
For collectors of Vermont as well as books by women is Abby Maria Hemenway's Poets and Poetry of Vermont. Published in Rutland in 1858, this decorative book on Vermont poets includes an inscription from the author. Item 21. $500. And while we're focused on poetry, here's The Poems of Maria Lowell, by, naturally, Maria Lowell. She was half of the poetic Lowells, her husband being James Russell Lowell, a well-regarded poet in his day who has not been as well remembered as contemporaries such as Longfellow and Whittier. While this 1855 book of Maria Lowell's poems was limited to 50 copies, not exactly an endorsement, it was later reprinted in 1907 and again in 1936 in larger editions. Item 29. $1,000.
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Women, Country Houses, and Perspective
From Charles Wood
none
Here is a book worth having simply for its title: Women, Plumbers and Doctors; or Household Sanitation. Despite the odd title, household sanitation was a major issue in 1885 when this was published. Certain indoor conveniences were not yet commonplace in that era. Item 35. $150.
Item 34 is Mrs. J.E. Panton's From Kitchen to Garret. What is a garret? I remember my grandfather had one, but I don’t think I've heard that word in many years. It's an unfinished space under the roof. We would more likely call it a porch today, but there was a time when just about everyone had a garret, and Mrs. Panton can help you decorate yours, along with the rest of the rooms in your house, though her style may be "old fashioned". $150.
How to Make Dolls' Furniture and Furnish a Dolls' House is a circa 1870-85 London title of unknown authorship. However, based on the time and subject, it can be assumed to have been written by a woman. This is a child's book replete with cut-outs, which makes this unmutilated copy a likely great rarity. Item 11. $300.
Part II of the Charles Woods catalogue covers mostly English country houses, the type of places where people with titles before their names would spend the summer if not all year. You can read all about the wonderful things they owned and the decorations in their homes. It was a good life. Among those covered is the Spencer family ancestral home. Those are the Princess Diana Spencers. So here's the one exception: a book about "Point Breeze", home of Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, former King of Naples and Spain, and brother to the more famous Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was exiled to Elba. Joe Napoleon was exiled to...New Jersey. Not Hoboken or Hackensack or Secaucus. Joe had a nice little home along the banks of the Delaware. Item 81. $275.
Part III of this catalogue covers the topic of perspective. This is "perspective" as in how things look, involving optics and geometry. This is certainly a specialized subject, but I won't attempt to define it more as those of you collect this field will understand it far better than I.
Charles Wood has a website at www.cbwoodbooks.com and can be reached by phone at 617-868-1711.
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