New Acquisitions Spring 2022 – 48 – Bauman Rare Books “Much Valuable Material… Not To Be Found Elsewhere”: Strickland’s Illustrated Queens Of Scotland, Beautifully Bound 52. STRICKLAND, Agnes. Lives of the Queens of Scotland and English Princesses Connected with the Regal Succession of Great Britain. Edinburgh, 1850-59. Eight volumes. Octavo, contemporary full polished tan calf gilt. $5500. First edition set of Strickland’s impressive and engaging eight-volume history of Scotland’s queens, with steel-engraved frontispiece portraits and vignette title pages in each volume, in fine contemporary calf-gilt. Strickland had already published poems and some minor works before she conceived the plan of writing the biographies of the queens of England (1840-48). Their popularitywas such that a similarworkdealingwithScottish queens was immediately undertaken. Aided by her sister Elizabeth, Strickland’s Queens of Scotland drew largely from contemporary authorities, and contained “much valuable material… [including] pictures of the court, of society, and of domestic life not to be found elsewhere” (DNB). “The Lives of the Queens of England and… the Lives of the Queens of Scotland were among the most popular of all Victorian historical publications, and remain important landmarks in the development of the biographical genre… Most major public libraries continue to carry an edition of the Lives, and the later 20th century saw a revival of academic interest in the elder Strickland sisters as female historians and historians of women” (ODNB). Folding facsimile letter in Volume V. Owner ink signature, dated 1861. A lovely set in fine condition.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDg3OTM=