The
Young Misses Magazine: Containing Dialogues Between a Governess and
Several Young Ladies of Quality, Her Scholars: Vol. 1, translated
from the French of Madamoiselle Le Prince De Beaumont.
Hardcover
book with leather binding (no dust jacket) printed for William
Anderson, Stirling and Silvester Doig, Edinburgh MDCCXCI (1791), 341
pages with one colour illustration.
(Apologies
for the slightly blurry photographs.)
“The
young misses magazine: Containing dialogues between a governess and
several young ladies of quality, her scholars. : In which each lady
is made to speak according to her particular genius, temper, and
inclination: their several faults are pointed out, and the easy way
to mend them, as well as to think, and speak, and act properly; no
less care being taken to form their hearts to goodness, than to
enlighten their understandings with useful knowledge. : A short and
clear abridgement is also given of sacred and profane history, and
some lessons in geography. : The useful is blended throughout with
the agreeable, the whole being interspersed with proper reflections
and moral tales.”
Jeanne-Marie
Leprince de Beaumont (1711 – 1780) was a French author
who wrote the best known version of Beauty and the Beast. She
had a relationship with the spy for the British Thomas Pichon.
Her first work, the moralistic novel The Triumph of Truth (Le
Triomphe de la vérité), was published in 1748. She published
approximately seventy volumes during her literary career Most famous
were the collections she called "magasins," instructional
handbooks for parents and educators of students from childhood
through adolescence. She was one of the first to include folk tales
as moralist and educational tools in her writings.
I had no
idea who Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont or the Young Misses was
when I picked up this volume. I mainly picked it up because:
a/ It
was old
b/ It
was cute (small book)
c/ It
appeared to be a great candidate for “of interest” status
d/ It's
a bit of an adventure (… a jump into the unknown)
e/ It
was the right price
Yes, it
is old. 1791 is little bit before my time and a little bit before
most of my other books of interests time. Beside it's age and
inevitable wear and tear, “The young misses magazine” had also
been through the wars and was in a very sad state after it's 225
years. It had gotten to what I believe was the saddest/lowest point
in it's long existence when someone decided that the best possible
option for this bi-centenarian was a repair by sticking a piece of
brown velour cloth across the spine in place of the leather that had
probably once been there. The brown did match and it did look like...
a shoddy repair on a very old book. Still, it was brown.
Despite
the condition... and yes there was (and still are) other issues... I
decided that the book was of interest and worth giving a go. Even as
I picked it up I was already thinking about the possible rescue
effort on what was a very cute book despite the velour. I've been
buying a few older items over the last few years and it is a bit of a
learning curve for me. Usually anything I find as old as this, does
have issues which are carefully weighed up against the “of
interest”/saleability factors. I've had some luck and also some
disappointments but overall it is an area that I keep my eyes and
ears open for, as I am interested.
With
this volume I decided I would take the plunge after the initial
purchase plunge and get some work done on it... professional work, that is.
A bookbinder. I've held off on the repair scenario previously due to the cost of such an
extravagance. It is expensive and the economics of costly repairs on
a not so valuable volume means that usually this is a prohibitive
excercise. So the question was/is, will the $ spent increase the
overall value of this volume. In this instance due to the
scarcity/rarity of this title, I figured it was worth my while giving
it a go... that is if it sells.
Irwin and McLaren Bookbinders are
people who mysteriously follow me, and I follow them, on Instagram,
so it seemed to me that they were the obvious candidates for doing
the work. They were very easy to deal with and I am really pleased
with the end product (thanks Storm). I am aware that there are some
of you out there who will be questioning whether this sort of repair
work is appropriate for such a rare antiquarian volume. Just
remember, “brown velour”.
