Turnbull Rare Books

‘Frances Wolfreston her bouk’

A shelf-check undertaken in 2019 turned up a book held by the Alexander Turnbull Library that was once owned by the 17th-century collector Frances Wolfreston (1607-1677), a gentrywoman who formed a substantial library focused primarily on English literature and drama. (Better late than never to announce the find!)

The book is The dance machabre or Death’s duell: a metrical treatise on death composed by the English Franciscan friar Walter Colman (1600-1645). It is also an extremely scarce work, with just nine copies recorded in the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC). Wolfreston’s ownership inscription appears on the first page of verse.

In her will, Wolfreston bequeathed her library to her son Stanford (b. 1652). Her collection remained with the family until the mid-19th century when much of it was sold by Sotheby’s in 1856 and dispersed.*

Wolfreston’s copy of Colman’s La dance machabre was purchased in the Sotheby’s sale by the writer and book collector George Daniel (1789-1864), whose collection was sold over a ten-day period in July 1864 just a few months after his death. La dance machabre was lot 377 and was acquired by Joseph Lilly on behalf of the notable bibliophile Henry Huth (1815-1878). His 'Ex Musæo Huthii’ book label is present on the front pastedown.

Huth’s vast library was auctioned in a series of Sotheby’s sales that took place between 1911 and 1922. La dance machabre was sold in 1912 (lot 1702), and was likely knocked down to Bernard Quaritch on behalf of Alexander Turnbull.

Although his bookplate is not present, Turnbull purchased numerous books in the Huth sales - most notably Huth’s complete set of Theodor de Bry’s voyages in both the German and Latin editions - and like Wolfreston he had a particular interest in English literature. A work as scarce as Colman’s La dance machabre with such a collecting lineage would not have escaped his eye.

*For the wonderful project being led by Sarah Lindenbaum that seeks to list the surviving books from Wolfreston’s library along with their present locations (including the book described here) see:

https://franceswolfrestonhorbouks.com/

The website records over 230 books to date. Here is to the discovery of many more!

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Walter Colman, La dance machabre or Death’s duell. London: printed by William Stansby, [1632?], Alexander Turnbull Library, REng COLM Dance 1632

book collecting libraries rare books Wolfreston 1600s seventeenth century auction books history literature poetry women

‘One wit, like a knuckle of ham in soup, gives a zest and flavour to the dish, but more than one serves only to spoil the pottage’.
~ From The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771)

Happy 300th Birthday to the delightful Scottish author Tobias Smollett (1721-1771)!

Smollett, whose literary output included plays, poetry, travel narratives and such wonderfully picaresque novels as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748) and The Adventures of Peregrin Pickle (1751), was a great influence on later writers such as Charles Dickens. George Orwell referred to him as, 'Scotland’s best novelist’.

Shown here is a selection of Smollett’s books - some in their first edition - from the Turnbull Library’s Rare Books and Fine Printing Collection.

rare books Tobias Smollett 300th 1700s late 1700s English literature literature Scotland Scottish authors anniversaries

Retrospective cataloguing work recently turned up a book inscribed to the founder of our library Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull (1868-1918) when he was just sixteen.

The inscription, found in an 1867 edition of Alain-René Lesage’s picaresque novel Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, reads:

Neuilly 14 Novembre [18]84.

14 rue Borghese

A Manoury.

A mon cher élève [i.e. To my dear student]

A Turnbull.

Thanks to some detective work by Anthony Tedeschi, our Curator Rare Books and Fine Printing, the inscriber has been identified as Arthur Maximilien Manoury (1849–1900), who is listed in the 1891 Paris electoral roll as living in 14 Rue Borghese in the commune of Neuilly (officially Neuilly-sur-Seine from May 1897) in the department of Hauts-de-Seine, just west of Paris.

By November 1884, Turnbull was no longer enrolled as a student at Dulwich College, London, having left at the end of the Lent term in March. Manoury was presumably hired as a private tutor so Turnbull could continue his French education. His comprehension of the language as a student at Dulwich is described in Eric McCormick’s biography as ‘rather better than average’ (p. 59) and, while not exactly a glowing endorsement, young Alexander must have improved and impressed Manoury enough to be given such a kind gift.

This book is one of just two books from Turnbull’s youth found in the collection to date. The other volume is an 1883 edition of works by the English poet and intellectual John Milton (1608-1674).

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Alain-René Lesage, Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane. Paris: Garnier frères, 1867, Alexander Turnbull Library, R407877.

rare books Alexander Turnbull Library Alexander Turnbull French gift inscription Dulwich College London nineteenth century 1800s school education French literature literature presentation

The onsite research services of the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa and the Alexander Turnbull Library have temporarily closed due to COVID-19. Please see our website www.natlib.govt.nz for details and send us any... — The onsite research services of the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa and the Alexander Turnbull Library have temporarily closed due to COVID-19. Please see our website www.natlib.govt.nz for details and send us any questions via Ask a Librarian - https://natlib.govt.nz/questions/new.
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Image: Historiated initial ‘I’ with kneeling figure of Philosophy from Boethius’s Consolatio Philosophiae, f.24, 15th century, Alexander Turnbull Library, MSR-19.

International Women’s Day

‘I am not covetous, but as ambitious as ever any of my sex was, is, or can be; which makes, that though I cannot be Henry the Fifth, or Charles the Second, yet I endeavour to be Margaret the First’.

~ Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

This week’s Turnbull Rare Books post marks International Women’s Day (8 March) by highlighting a selection of books written by women in the 17th and and early 18th century. Click the name links to read biographies of each author primarily through the Poetry Foundation website.

The authors and their works from the top are (in date order of publication) …

Lady Mary Wroth (1587–1653), poet

Urania. London: printed for John Marriott and John Grismand, 1621, Alexander Turnbull Library, qREng WROT Coun 1621.

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623–1673), poet, philosopher, playwright, scientist and fiction writer

The philosophical and physical opinions. London: printed for J. Martin and J. Allestrye, 1655, Alexander Turnbull Library, qREng NEWC Phil 1655.

Aphra Behn (1640–1689), playwright, propagandist poet, translator, spy

The rover. Or, the banish’t cavaliers. London: printed for John Amery, 1677, Alexander Turnbull Library, REng BEHN Rover 1677.

Anne Killigrew (1660–1685), poet and painter

Poems by Mrs Anne Killigrew. London: printed for Samuel Lowndes, 1686, Alexander Turnbull Library, REng KILL Poems 1686.

Lady Mary Chudleigh (1656–1710), poet

Poems on several occasions. Together with the Song of the three children paraphras’d. London: printed by D. L. for Bernard Lintott, 1709, Alexander Turnbull Library, REng CHUD Poems 1709.

Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661–1720), poet

Miscellany poems, on several occasions. London: printed for J. B., 1713, Alexander Turnbull Library, REng FINCH Misc 1713 copy 2.

Susanna Centlivre (bap. 1669–1723), actress and playwright

A bold stroke for a wife. A comedy. London: printed for T. Lowndes, T. Caslon., W. Nicoll, and S. Bladon, 1783, Alexander Turnbull Library, REng CENT Bold 1783.

rare books International Women's Day poetry plays theatre playwright poet 1700s 1600s eighteenth century seventeenth century female writers authors writers

Happy Birthday to illustrator and cartoonist Sir John Tenniel (1820-1914), born 200 years ago today (28 February), and perhaps best remembered for his illustrations in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its follow-up novel Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871).

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Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. London: Macmillan and Co., 1866, Alexander Turnbull Library, REng DODG Alic 1866.

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass: and What Alice Found There. London: Macmillan and Co., 1872, Alexander Turnbull Library, REng DODG Alic 1872.

John Tenniel Lewis Carroll illustration Book Illustration rare books Alice in Wonderland nineteenth century 1800s cartoonist illustrator bicentennial

turnbullephemera

Here stand my books, line upon line
They reach the roof, and row by row,
They speak of faded tastes of mine,
And things I did, but do not, know.

~ Andrew Lang

This morocco binding rainbow comprises 11 of the 12 ‘Coloured’ Fairy Books, e.g. blue, red, yellow, green and so on, published between 1889 and 1910 by Scottish author Andrew Lang (1844-1912) and his wife Leonora (1851-1933).

They were collected by Alexander Turnbull, who had each volume rebound in the rich colour of each title fairy. Only the Violet Fairy Book (1901) is lacking for reasons unknown.

Rather than see them discarded, Turnbull requested his binders affix the original gold-blocked covers to the front pastedown (and the original spine strip to the rear pastedown) in each book as shown here in the Brown Fairy Book (1904) and in this previous Turnbull Rare Books post:

https://turnbullrarebooks.tumblr.com/post/102849803244/a-decorated-publishers-bookbinding-from-the-1890s

rare books Alexander Turnbull Andrew Lang folklore fairies fairy tales literature English literature nineteenth century twentieth century 1800s 1900s binding bookbinding

A Brontë Bicentennial

17 January marks the 200th birthday of Anne Brontë (1820-1849), youngest of the three Brontë sisters and author of Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848).

Anne’s work first appeared in print alongside Charlotte and Emily in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846). To avoid the prejudice against female authors at the time, they published this collection under male pseudonyms beginning with their first initials: Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell (Brontë).

Twelve of the poems are credited to Anne, including one of her most acclaimed, ‘Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day’, shown here in the Turnbull Library’s copy of the first edition, second issue.

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Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell [pseud.]. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1846 [i.e. 1848], Alexander Turnbull Library, REng BRON Poems 1848.

rare books poetry literature English literature Anne Bronte 1800s nineteenth century female writers bicentennial birthday Brontes Romanticism

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Turnbull Rare Books

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