Rare Book Monthly

Articles - August - 2017 Issue

Bedazzled by Burney: Sales of Frances Burney Books, Manuscripts & Images from the Paula Peyraud Collection

This month, Rare Book Hub guest writer, Maureen E. Mulvihill, has written a useful piece on continuing strong values in Frances Burney (her books, manuscripts, associated visual art). Burney, a popular 18th-century English novelist and diarist, has commanded considerable attention over the last several years, and it's high time, says Mulvihill, that collectors and specialists know more about her. Click here to read the piece!

Posted On: 2017-08-03 04:46
User Name: mairin111

Posting for Susan Levine, Brooklyn, NY:

Hello, all, and thanks much for this interesting and useful article on 'Fanny' Burney. I am a collector of cookbooks, the older the better, but this piece caught my eye, The images amaze me, and I appreciate being educated on the Peyraud Collection, and also who's paying what for which Burney property, and where these (recently-sold) rarities now 'live'. So this article is a big assistance (a real service) to anyone doing work on Burney. I haven't read her, nor Jane Austen, since grad school, but I'm now inspired to take her up anew. Hope to run into some of you folks! Be well, Susan Levine, Brooklyn, NY. (And thank you, Mr McKinney, for the notice on the upcoming Brooklyn Book Fair, I'll be in that throng of book wonks.)


Posted On: 2017-08-06 22:07
User Name: hellerjr

I enjoyed this thorough article by Maureen Mulvihill about the artifacts of Frances Burney. I'm glad that early women writers can now get the appreciation that they deserve. I hope that more colleges and universities will teach the novels of Burney and her cohorts. When I was in graduate school in English literature, I took many courses that did not include any women writers at all. Congratulations to Dr. Mulvihill on this informative article!

Janet Ruth Heller, Ph.D.
website is http://www.janetruthheller.com/


Posted On: 2017-08-14 19:20
User Name: mairin111

Posting for L. McDiarmid, Los Angeles.
One of my medical team, a collector and Rare Book Hub subscriber, pointed me in your direction. Many thanks to Bruce McKinney's Rare Book Hub in 'Frisco for this 'bedazzling' piece on Frances Burney. I especially appreciated the author's background information on Burney's medical issues (her breast cancer surgery). As a survivor of this pernicious, nearly pervasive, disease, which often strikes women in their prime, I was given new information from the author on mastectomies in the 18th century; and I've just heard from a colleague that another woman writer of Burney's time, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, also battled the disease. And before that, the writer Mary Astell. (Three recorded examples in probably a long, long list.) I now have a new subject to investigate, and I am grateful for this historical context. LMcD in L.A.
____


Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Book Week
    December 9-17, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
  • Heritage Auctions
    Rare Books Signature Auction
    December 15, 2025
    Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Bram Stoker. Dracula. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1897.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.

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