VERNEY (Frances Parthenope [Lady]). Memoirs of the Verney family During the Civil War Compiled from the letters and illustrated by The portraits at Claydon House By Frances Parthenope Verney. In two Volumes. London, Longmans, Green, and Co., And New York: 15 East 16th Street, 1892. All rights reserved. Demy 8vo; blank before half-title, blank at end; title-page printed in red and black, each volume with different wood-engraved vignette; volume one with photogravure frontispiece and nine plates, printed in sepia, with tissue guards, one very large folding photogravure plate, one very large folding genealogy, four wood-engraved plates, and numerous illustrations in the text mostly after drawings by Lady Verney; volume two with photogravure frontispiece and twelve plates, printed in sepia, with tissue guards, one half-tone plate, and one illustration in the text after a drawing by Lady Verney; publisher’s full fine-grain-morocco-faced sheep, ruled black on sides, blocked gilt on front cover with armorial bearings of the Verneys, spine with five raised bands, ruled black and gilt, dark red lettering-pieces, inner margins of boards with widely spaced gilt rules between which are elaborate floral corner ornaments; a.e.g., oil-marbled end-papers; purple-and-white head- and tail- bands, purple silk marker. Slight rubbing to leather here and there; most tissues embrowned, with some offsetting onto blank margins, and one a little torn; a little scattered very light foxing; otherwise a nice copy. TOGETHER WITH: VERNEY (Margaret M[aria, Lady]). Memoirs of the Verney Family During the Commonwealth 1650 to 1660 Compiled from the letters and illustrated by The portraits at Claydon House By Margaret M. Verney. London, Longmans, Green, and Co., And New York: 15 East 16th Street, 1894. All rights reserved. Demy 8vo; binder’s blank at front and back; title-page printed in red and black, with wood-engraved vignette; photogravure frontispiece and nine plates, printed in sepia, with tissue guards, and one illustration in the text; first leaf of final gathering a single inset; publisher’s full brown coarse-grain-morocco-faced sheep, ruled black on sides, blocked gilt on front cover with armorial bearings of the Verneys, spine with five raised bands, ruled black and gilt, dark red lettering-pieces, inner margins of boards with widely spaced gilt rules between which are elaborate floral corner ornaments; a.e.g., oil-marbled end-papers; black and white head- and tail- bands. Slight rubbing to leather here and there, and head of front joint splitting slightly; lacking the lettering-pieces; a little scattered very light foxing; otherwise a nice copy. The three volumes together.

GB £100.00

US $160.00

Presentation copies in author’s presentation bindings, the usual bindings being of brown morocco cloth, blocked and lettered as here, but with red and gilt rules, with the top-edges only gilt, and with different end-papers. The first two volumes have inscriptions on the back of the front end-papers “Presented...by Lady Verney / July 30, 1894”, apparently in the hand of Sir Harry Verney, the author’s widower. The third volume has tipped onto the back of the front end-paper an als, c.60 words, from Margaret Verney to a Mr. Sadler, dated March 11th 1895, presenting the volume. The first two volumes are by the sister of Florence Nightingale “and the chatelaine of Claydon, where Florence always stayed when in England. She wrote very interestingly indeed.” - Wolff, IV, p.228. She died on May 12th 1890. The first volume, which includes a four-page Introductory Note by Samuel R. Gardiner, was prepared for publication before her death, the second, which was prepared but not finally completed, was edited by her daughter-in-law, Margaret Maria, who then continued the work, issuing the volume on the Commonwealth period in 1894 and a further volume taking the history forward from the Restoration until 1696 in 1899. “The Letters and Papers of the Verney Family down to the end of the year 1639 were first printed in 1833. Here, the tale was taken up by pious hands and carried on through three series of Memoirs of the Verney Family during the civil war, during the commonwealth and from the restoration to the year 1696. The story, like the stately and hospitable English house which forms its centre, is full of portraits; but, in their book, the tact of the editresses has allowed these to be mainly self-painted. The Verneys, before and during the seventeenth century, were, in the words of the elder lady Verney, “an ordinary gentleman’s family of the higher class, mixing a good deal in the politics of their times, with considerable county and local influence; Members of Parliament, sheriffs, magistrates, soldiers - never place-men - marrying in their own degree, with no splendid talents or position to boast of, no crimes either noble or ignoble to make them notorious, and, for that very reason, good average specimens of hundreds of men or women of their age.” They were, at the same time, a family that cherished, in prosperity and in adversity alike, the principles of conduct in both public and private life to the observation of which the greatness and the freedom of England are deeply indebted; and, in their case, the principles in question were practised not less constantly by the women than by the men.” - ‘The Cambridge History of English and American Literature’. The photogravures, by Walker & Boutell, are described more fully in the Notes as “photo-intaglio copper plates, carefully reproduced from photographs taken of the original pictures at Claydon”. They are fine impressions here, but will no doubt have worn in the usual way of copper; later reprints, at any rate, are inferior.
Ref: IRT818404