Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2004 Issue
Women, Country Houses, and Perspective<br>From Charles Wood
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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.
