Welcome to this second installment in my three-part essay series on new editions of 17th-century women writers. This second essay discusses Alice Eardley's edition (2014) of an unusual, uncanonical literary manuscript attributed to Lady Hester Pulter of Broadfield Hall, Hertfordshire. The Pulter manuscript is a bound book (8" x 5") of 168 inscribed folios ~ poetry, "emblemes" (emblem poems), and an unfinished prose narrative on sexual violence. The book was acquired by Leeds University Library in 1975 at Christie's sale of the property of Sir Gilbert Inglefield, architect and Lord Mayor of London (1967-1968). But due to a cataloguing error, the book languished, unused and unappreciated, for two decades; it was saved from obscurity by an alert scholar in 1996. Since its recent discovery, Pulter's book has excited much attention from book historians and literary specialists. Calling herself "the nobel Hadassas" (Hebrew, "Esther"; variant, "Hester"), Pulter writes in a domestic vein as a mother of fifteen children; she also writes as an ardent Stuart royalist. But the best of her work exists in a wholly different dimension, as when she explores the astral plane of comets, planets, and (yes) extraterrestrials ("Mee thinks I play at football withe the stars"). It was this thrilling attachment to other worlds and meta-realities (the New Astronomy) which evidently saved Hester Pulter from debilitating depression. This essay will also discuss Eardley's editorial methodology and challenges as she transferred a dedicated body of writings from the manuscript medium into quite another: print. A Gallery of Images is included. Displayed here, alongside the top board of Pulter's book, is a contemporary woodcut of the curious Su creature of Patagonia, praised in Pulter's ["Poem 57"]. < Click here for essay. >
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Case Antiques
2026 Winter Fine Art & Antiques
January 31 and February 1, 2026Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: 1775 Map of Virginia, Fry and Jefferson, ex-John Tyler. $6,000 to $8,000.Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: Albrecht Durer Engraving, The Peasant Couple at Market. $3,400 to $3,800.Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: 1777 Map: Wm. Faden, British Colonies in N. America, ex. John Tyler. $2,000 to $2,400.Case Antiques
2026 Winter Fine Art & Antiques
January 31 and February 1, 2026Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: 30 Vols. George Eliot 1st Editions; Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Deronda, etc. $1,400 to $1,800.Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: Celestial Floor Globe c. 1800. $1,400 to $1,800.Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1866 London MacMillan. $900 to $1,200.Case Antiques
2026 Winter Fine Art & Antiques
January 31 and February 1, 2026Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: President Andrew Jackson Signed Patent, 1831. $1,000 to $1,200.Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: Civil War Tintype of Calvin “Old Ballie” Walker, CSA 3rd TN Infantry, KIA, plus 3 Union Images. $800 to $1,000.Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: 1855 Georgia Pocket Map, W. G. Bonner. $800 to $1,000.Case Antiques
2026 Winter Fine Art & Antiques
January 31 and February 1, 2026Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: Audubon c. 1835 Birds of America Common Cormorant, Havell Edition. $800 to $900.Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: George Eliot, Middlemarch, 1st Edition in 8 Volumes. $600 to $800.Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: Four NASA Moon Survey Photos; 144M, 148M, 149M, 149H1. $400 to $600. -
Sotheby’s
Year in ReviewSotheby’s Year in Review: A Rare Hebrew Bible with Micrographic Masorah. Sold: 1,514,000 USDSotheby’s Year in Review: "The Freedman's Primer.” Sold: 241,300 USDSotheby’s Year in Review: Smith, William. "The Map that Changed the World." Sold: 139,700 USDSotheby’s Year in Review: Psalter, C13th. Illuminated Psalter. Sold: 330,200 GBPSotheby’s Year in Review: Lincoln, Abraham. The abolition of slavery. Sold: 13,697,500 USDSotheby’s Year in Review: Vergilius. Opera, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, 1501. Sold: 1,041,400 USD -
University Archives
Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
January 7, 2026University Archives, Jan. 7: Jefferson's Owned & Signed "Plutarch's Morals" Vol. 4. - 1st Time At Auction In Nearly 200 Years!University Archives, Jan. 7: Flown NASA Hasselblad 203S Space Camera On Endeavour STS-111, With Components, Data Module & Flown Film Magazine!University Archives, Jan. 7: One Of The Finest Lincoln Assassination Letters Extant, April 15, 1865 - Illustrated & Beyond Dramatic! 8pp.University Archives
Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
January 7, 2026University Archives, Jan. 7: Isaac Newton Highly Important Religious Manuscript With 85+ Words In His Hand, Ex-BonhamsUniversity Archives, Jan. 7: Marilyn Monroe Gorgeous Signed & Inscribed Photograph, PSA AuthenticatedUniversity Archives, Jan. 7: Rare Ernest Hemingway, 1 Of 10 Signed Presentation Copies Of "Farewell To Arms"University Archives
Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
January 7, 2026University Archives, Jan. 7: Ayn Rand 11pp Revised AMS "The Cold Civil War" For LA Times Newspaper- 900+ Words In Her Hand!University Archives, Jan. 7: Mary Todd Lincoln Calls Abe A "great & good man, who loved & served his country so well"University Archives, Jan. 7: Abraham Lincoln Gives Rebel Woman Pass To Visit Prisoner Of War Husband, Showing A Very Human Lincoln!University Archives
Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
January 7, 2026University Archives, Jan. 7: Babe Ruth PSA Type II Signed Conlon Photo, With Ruth Miniature Louisville Slugger, 16.25"University Archives, Jan. 7: Armstrong, Collins, Aldrin Signed Photo - Prime Crew Apollo 11 - PSA AuthenticatedUniversity Archives, Jan. 7: Huge Abraham Lincoln Hesler Photo, Ca. 1880 - As If He Were In The Room!