An 1892 Opinion About VIctorian Values

AN 1892 OPINION ABOUT "LADY BOOK-LOVERS," AND EVOLVING VICTORIAN VALUES - SEXIST BUT IT'S WHAT THE PERIOD PREVAILED UPON SOCIAL NORMS

RARE BOOKS A PRIVILEGE OF THE WELL-TO-DO WOMAN AND ROYALTY

     For numerous years, I've written frequently about my book collector mentor, David Brown, of Hamilton. Dave had very little interest or personal economy, to have much chance at all, of securing even a token few of the world's rarest books. He never once expressed an interest in quality binding, leather or cloth covers, and settling that it was securely hinged, and acceptably covered to his standard; which wasn't all that high. Dave was primarily interested in editorial content of his non-fiction, and pursued them more as an historian, than an actual hard-core collector. He gave every appearance of being a keen book collector, but I realize now, he was less than objective about the books he didn't want; those having religious, philosophical or literary significance. He told me once that they wouldn't sell, and I should void my book shelves of all of them. I didn't listen, and I have sold thousands of them since he gave me that advice. By itself, it limited how successful he could be, boxing him into a tight corner of collecting. He didn't purchase books because of value, or the fact it had autographs, inscriptions, or an author's notes, unless it was a work of non-fiction, particularly in natural sciences, and North American frontier histories. Unfortunately, the following notes on an 1892 book on "old books" has no relevance to any collecting Dave got up to, other than the fact he had books generally. The real value in collecting old, unique, antique and rare books, is addressed by Mr. Lang, in his book, "Books and Bookmen."
     I have talked to a small number of veteran sellers of old and rare books, and they have volunteered, with gentle coaxing, that males make up the majority of buyers in their respective shops. When I was selling mostly antiquated books, predominantly non-fiction, I could easily state the same for our shop in Bracebridge, and then online, when we sold old books through ebay. It's not a scientific survey by any means, but Suzanne and I had no reason to think much about it then, because the bottom line was to make sales, regardless of who was buying. We did take a practical look at this, when we set up our present antique shop, with an old book component, and tried to find a way of appealing to more women with our selection. When we started setting up shop, we diversified the books as a first step, bringing in slightly more vintage fiction, and many more books that were non-fiction but very lightly used, and of a more contemporary printing date. Suzanne and I began looking at cookbooks, used, collectable, antique and rare, mixed with some related texts, and found it was a big help to balance the book appeal amongst our customers. Suzanne has to admit though, that after two years of having a large vintage cookbook collection, just as many men as women today, are buying them. One month may be higher than the others, for having gentlemen buying more cookbooks, and then it will reverse for the next two months. If we tallied over the course of a year, it would work out pretty close. So it's certainly not the case women are buying more cooking related books than men, and now, with our upgraded mix of books in general, it's a much closer split in buying. There is however, a trend that we can't ignore. Men seem to be willing to pay more for antiquated and rare books, especially those that are inscribed and signed by the authors; and or, association copies, which belonged to the authors themselves, and were signed or book-plated to reflect this former ownership. It can't be said with any significant proof, that women buyers are more frugal about the books they buy, because what we have found, is that they simply buy differently, when it comes to used and nearly new books, we hunt and gather for the book-room. In other words, a woman book buyer, from our experience as shop-keeps, will buy five good quality, used books, or vintage, that will equal the purchase of a male buyer who only has one book. A case in point, was a fellow at Christmas, who bought a $60 double signed and inscribed hockey biography, and later in the day, a couple of ladies shopping together, spent $60 on used books. It happens a lot since we balanced our selection of books, to cover a wider area of interest; with a better range of prices to suit those uninterested in spending a lot of money on a single book. It's not scientific but it is what we see at the sales counter, and it now impacts how we purchase our old books out on the hustings. Looking back at Andrew Lang's editorial overview, from the late Victorian era, circa 1892, taken from his text, "Books and Bookmen," (Longman's, Green & Co.) there is a very curious chapter entitled "Lady Book-Lovers," that attempts, at least mildly, to show how astute women book buyers were, and accomplished they were becoming, as bibliophiles with valuable collections. From the beginning, collecting books was male dominated, and most of the book sellers reflected this, as compared to shops owned and operated by women. What Lang is trying to do, is point out, and rather appropriately for the time, just how women were becoming more of a force to reckon with, in the pursuit of the oldest and best quality books on the market. Now in the words of Mr. Lang:
     Keep in mind, that what we may think of as "rare" and "antiquated" books, not being collectors at the highest level, are a long, long way, from what Mr. Lang is writing about, and unless we have inherited collections from family members in Europe, there is little chance that we could find one of these books on our own book shelves, or afford one let alone a dozen, at a rare book auction. But it's important to understand the differences regardless, of what a muggle like me, plays at, in the name of being an old book dealer. Even in the modern sense, I am but a small example of what passes, on the collector level, for an antiquarian bookman.
     "The biographer of Mrs. Aphra Behn refutes the vulgar error that 'a Dutchman cannot love.' Whether or not a lady can love books is a question that may not be so readily settled. Mr. Ernest Quentin Bauchart has contributed to the discussion of this problem by publishing a bibliography, in two quarto volumes, of books which have been in the libraries of famous beauties of old, queens and princesses of France. There can be no doubt that these ladies were possessors of exquisite printed books and manuscripts wonderfully bound, but it remains uncertain whether the owners, as a rule, were bibliophiles; whether their hearts were with their treasures. Incredible as it may seem to us now, literature was highly respected in the past, and was even fashionable. Poets were in favour at court, and Fashion decided that the great must possess books, and not only books, but books produced in the utmost perfection of art, and bound with all the skill at the disposal of Clovis, Eve, and Padeloup, and Duscull. Therefore, as Fashion gave her commands, we cannot hastily affirm that the ladies who obeyed were really book-lovers. In our more polite age, Fashion has decreed that ladies shall smoke, and bet and romp, but it would be premature to assert that all ladies who do their duty in these matters, are born romps, or have an unaffected liking for cigarettes. History, however, maintains that many of the renowned dames whose books are now the most treasured of literary relics were actually inclined to study as well, as to pleasure, like Marguerite de Valois and the Contess de Verrue, and even Madame de Pompadour. Probably books and arts were more to this lady's liking than the diversions by which she beguiled the tedium of Louis XV; and many a time she would rather have been quiet with her plays and novels than engaged in conscientiously conducted but distasteful revels.
     "Like a true Frenchman, M. Bauchart has only written about French lady book-lovers, or about women who, like Mary Stuart, were more than half French. Nor would it be easy for an English author to name, outside the ranks of crowned heads, like Elizabeth, any English women of distinction who had a passion for the material side of literature, for binding, and first editions, and large papers, and engravings in early 'states.' The practical sex, when studious, is like the same sex when fond of equestrian exercise. A lady says, 'My heyes, he's an 'orse, and he must go,' according to Leech's groom. In the same way, a studious girl or matron says, 'This is a book,' and reads it, if read she does, without caring about the date or the state, or the publisher's name, or even very often about the author's. I remember, before the publication of a novel now celebrated, seeing a privately printed vellum-bound copy on large paper in the hands of a literary lady. She was holding it over the fire, and had already made the vellum covers curl wide open like the shells of an afflicted oyster. When I asked what the volume was, she explained that 'It is a book which a poor man has written, and he's had it printed to see whether some one won't be kind enough to publish it.' I ventured, perhaps pedantically, to point out that the poor man could not be so very poor, or he would not have made so costly and experiment on Dutch paper. But the lady said she did not know how that might be, and she went on toasting the experiment. In all this there is a fine contempt for everything but the spiritual aspect of literature; there is an aversion to the mere coquetry and display of morocco and red letters and the toys which amuse the minds of men. Where ladies have caught 'the bibliomania,' I fancy they have taken this pretty fever from the other sex. But it must be owned that the books they have possessed, being rarer and more romantic, are even more highly prized by amateurs, than examples from the libraries of Grolier, and Longepierre and D'Hoyn.
    "M. Bauchart's book is a complete guide to the collector of these expensive relics. He begins his dream of fair women who have owned books with the peral of Valois, Margueritte d' Angouleme, the sister of Francis I. The remains of her library are chiefly devotional manuscripts. Indeed, it is to be noted that all these ladies, however frivolous, possessed the most devout and pious books, and whole collections of prayers copied out by the pen, and decorated with miniatures. Marguerite's library was bound in morocco, stamped with a crowned "m" in iterlacs sown with daisies, or, at least, with conventional flowers which may have been meant for daisies. If ones could choose, perhaps the most desirable of the specimens, extent is 'La Premier Livre du Prince des Poetes, Homere,' in Salel's translation. For this translation Ronsard writes a prologue, addressed to the manes of Salel, in which he complains that he is ridiculed for his poetry. He draws a characteristic picture of Homer and Salel in Elysium, among the learned lovers. Marguerite's manuscript copy of the First Book of the Iliad is a small quarto, adorned with daisies, fleurs de-lis, and the crowned 'M'. It is in the Due d'Aumale's collection at Chantilly. The books of Diane de Poitiers are more numerous and more famous. When first a widow she stamped her volumes with a laurel springing from a tomb, and the motto, 'Sola vivit in illo.' But when she consoled herself with Henri II, she suppressed the tomb, and made the motto meaningless. Her crescent shone not only on her books, but on the palace walls of France, in the Louvre Fontainebleau, and Anet, and her initial D. is inextricably interlaced with the 'H' of her royal lover. Indeed, Henri added the 'D' to his own cypher, and this must have been so embarrassing for his wife Catherine, that people have good-naturedly tried to read the curves of the D's as C's. The 'D's' and the crescents, and the bows of his Diana, are impressed even on the cover of Henri's Book of Hours. Catherine's own cypher is a double 'C' enlaced with an 'H,' or double 'K's' (Katherine) combined in the same manner. These, unlike the 'D.H.' are surmounted with a crown - the one advantage which the wife possessed over the favourite. Among Diane's books are various treatises on medicines and on surgery, and plenty of poetry, and Italian novels. Among the books exhibited at the British Museum in glass cases is Diane's copy of Bembo's 'History of Venice.' An American collector, Mr. Barlow, of New York, is happy enough to possess her 'Singularitiez de la France Antartique (Antwerp 1558).
     Andrew Lang astutely notes, "Catherine de Medicis got splendid books on the same terms as foreign pirates procure English novels - she sold them. The Marshall Strozzi, dying in the French service, left a noble collection, on which Catherine laid her hands. Brantome says that Strozzi's son often expressed to him a candid opinion about this transaction. What with her own collection and what with the Marshall's, Catherine possessed about four thousand volumes. On her death, they were in peril of being seized by her creditors, but her almoner carried them to his own house, and De Thou had them placed in the royal library. Unluckily, it was thought wiser to strip the books of the coats with Catherine's compromising device, lest her creditors should single them out, and take them away in their pockets. Hence, books with her arms and cypher are exceedingly rare. At the sale of the collections, of the Duchesse de Berry, a Book of Hours of Catherine's was sold for 2.400 pounds.
     "Mary Stewart of Scotland was one of the lady book-lovers whose taste was more than a mere following of fashion. Some of her books like one of Marie Antoinette's, were the companions of her captivity, and still bear the sad complaints which she entrusted to these last friends of fallen royalty. Her note-book, in which she wrote her Latin prose exercises when a girl, still survives, bound in red morocco, with the arms of France. In a Book of Hours, now the property of the Czar, may be partly deciphered the quantrains which she composed in her sorrowful years, but many of them are mutilated by the binder's shears. The Queen used the volume as a kind of album; it contains the signatures of the 'Countess of Schrewsbury,' (as M. Bauchart has it), of Walsingham, of the Earl of Sussex, and of Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham. There is also the signature, 'Your most infortunate, Arbella Seymour;' and 'Fr. Bacon.' This remarkable manuscript was purchased in Paris, during the Revolution by Peter Dubrowsky, who carried it to Russia. Another Book of Hours of the Queen's bears this inscription, in a sixteenth-century hand: 'Cesont les Heures de Marie Setuart Renne. Marguerite de Blacuod de Rosay.' In De Blacuod it is not very easy to recognize 'Blackwood.' Marguerite was probably the daughter of Adam Blackwood, who wrote a volume of Mary Stuart's sufferings (Edinburg, 1587)."
     "The famous Marguerite de Valois, the wife of Henri IV, had certainly a noble library, and many beautifully bound books stamped with daisies are attributed to her collection. They bear the motto, 'Expectata non eludet,' which appears to refer, first to the daisy ('Margarita'), which is punctual in the spring, or rather is next, to the lady, who will 'keep tryst.' But is the lady Margurete de Valois? Though the books have been sold at very high prices as relics of the leman of La Mole, it seems impossible to demonstrate that they were ever on her shelves, that they were bound by Clovis Eve, from her own design. 'No mention is made of them in any contemporary documents and the judicious are reduced to conjectures.' Yet they form a most important collection, systematically bound, science and philosophy in citron morocco, the poets in green, and history and theology in red. In any case, it is absurd to explain, 'Espectata non eludet,' as a reference to the lily of the royal arms, which appears on the centre of the daisy-pied volumes. The motto, in that case, would run 'Expectata non eludent.' As it stands, the feminine adjective 'expectata,' in the singular, must apply either to the lady who owned the volumes or to the 'Margarita,' her emblem, or to both. Yet the ungrammatical rendering is that which M. Bauchart suggests. Many of the books, Marguerite's or not, were sold at prices over one hundred pounds in London, in 1884 and 1883. The Macrobius, and Theocritus, and Homer, are in the Cracherode collection at the British Museum. The daisy-crowned Ronsard went for four hundred and thirty pounds at the Beckford sale. These prices will probably never be reached again."
     Andrew Lang advises that, "If Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV, was a bibliophile, she may be suspected of acting on the motive. 'Love me, love my books.' About her affection for Cardinal Mazarin there seems to be no doubt: the Cardinal had a famous library, and his royal friend probably imitated his tastes. In her time, and on her volumes, the originality and taste of the skilled binder. Le Gascon, begin to declare themselves. The fashionable passion for lace, to which La Fontaine made such sacrifices, affected the art of book decoration, and Le Gascon's beautiful patterns of gold points and dots are copies of the productions of Venice. The Queen-Mother's books include many devotional treatises for, whatever other fashions might come and go, piety was always constant before the Revolution. Anne of Austria seems to have been particularly fond of the lives and work of Saint Theresa, and St. Franscois de Sales, and John of the Cross. But she was not unread in the old French poets such as Coquillart; she condescended to Ariosto; she had that dubious character, Theophile de Viaud, beautifully bound; she owned the Rabelais of 1553; and what is particularly interesting, M. de Lignerolles possessed her copy of 'L ' Eschole des Femmes, Comedie par J.B.P. Moliere, Paris Guillaume de Luynes, 1663.' In red morocco, gilt edges, and the Queen's arms on the covers. This relic is especially valuable when we remember that 'L'Ecole des Femmes' and Arnolphe's sermon to Agnes, and his comic threats of future punishment first made envy take the form of religious persecution. The devout Queen-Mother was often appealed to by the enemies of Moliere, yet Anne of Austria had not only seen his comedy, but possessed this beautiful example of the first edition. M. Paul Lacroix, supposes that this copy was offered to the Queen-Mother by Moliere himself. The frontispiece (Arnolphe preaching to Agnes) is thought to be a portrait of Moliere, but in the reproduction in M. Louis Lacour's edition it is not easy to see any resemblances. Apparently Anne did not share the views, even in her later years, of the converted Prince of Conty, for several comedies and novels remain stamped with her arms and device."