The Lady's Monthly Museum, Or polite repository of Amusement and Instruction: Being an assemblage of whatever can tend to please the Fancy interest the Mind or exalt the Character of The British Fair. Vol. XVI
Book Description
January to June 1806. 12mo (in 6s), pp. ii, 430 + five b/w engraved frontispieces (lacks April frontis: “An elegant Portrait” of Lady Ogilby) and a second b/w plate to January issue, plus six hand-coloured fashion plates. Polished tree calf, spine divided by gilt rules, red and black morocco labels, other compartments tooled centrally in gilt, gilt board-edge tooling. Front joint, edges and extremities rubbed, corners bruised. Binders ticket to front pastedown: “Bound by H Earnshaw/ Printer Bookseller/ & Book Binder./ Colne,/ Lancashire./ Copper plate printing neatly executed,” two POIs in sepia ink to ffep: “Mary Wiglesworth./ ........Townhead....” and underneath, in a less prepossessing hand: “Walter[?] Wilson/ Slaidburn”. Some browning, including title page, offsetting from colour plates, occasional marks and fox spots, lacks pp. 133-4 (leaf N1, the ‘Cabinet of Fashion’ text for February) and April frontispiece (see above). Nevertheless, a handsome copy of the sixteenth volume of the popular monthly woman’s magazine. Includes a tribute, plus “elegant Portrait” of the Bluestocking polymath, poet and translator Mrs Elizabeth Carter, who had died on 19 February 1806: “one of the great ornaments of their sex; a venerable and illustrious example of female literary talent, and most worthy member of society”; various tributes to Admiral Nelson also appear.
Dealer Notes
The Lady’s Monthly Museum (1798-1832) featured biographies, essays, poems and serialised stories, as well as the ‘Cabinet of Fashion' with its hand-coloured engravings. The magazine was advertised as “a convenient size for the pocket”.
The book’s first owner is likely Mary Wig(g)lesworth (1776/8-1861), second wife of Henry Wiglesworth (1758-1838), of Townhead, Rector and Squire of Slaidburn in the Ribble Valley, West Riding of Yorkshire (now Lancashire). The Wiglesworths were significant landowners in the parish; Townhead was a 16-bedroom mansion house built in 1729 for Wiglesworth’s uncle (another) Henry Wiglesworth (d.1730).
The book’s first owner is likely Mary Wig(g)lesworth (1776/8-1861), second wife of Henry Wiglesworth (1758-1838), of Townhead, Rector and Squire of Slaidburn in the Ribble Valley, West Riding of Yorkshire (now Lancashire). The Wiglesworths were significant landowners in the parish; Townhead was a 16-bedroom mansion house built in 1729 for Wiglesworth’s uncle (another) Henry Wiglesworth (d.1730).
Author
BY A SOCIETY OF LADIES
Date
1806
Publisher
London: Vernor and Hood
Condition
Very good
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