london Peter Harrington ININ HERHER OWN WORDS WORKS BY EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN ur first catalogue focussed on women spans the Others have been overlooked despite brilliant contributions Ocenturies from Sappho to Maya Angelou, showcasing the to their fields. Early works by Joan Robinson (122 and 123) and work of exceptional women in many different fields. Rosa Luxemburg (96) are well-known to economists, but less These were women who pushed legal, intellectual, and well-known are those by Helen Makower (97) and S. F. Porter physical boundaries. Millicent Fawcett Garrett signed our (118). Rosalind Franklin and Jocelyn Bell were both denied copy of Women’s Victory in July 1928, the same month the Equal Nobel prizes, despite playing crucial roles in the discovery of the Franchise Act gave British women electoral equality with men structure of DNA and radio pulsars respectively (70 and 22). In (item 66). Maria Gaetana Agnesi’s Analytical Institutions is the the suffrage movement, the works of Christabel (109) and Sylvia first advanced mathematics book by a woman (1). Trailblazers Pankhurst (110) sit alongside work by their exiled sister, Adela such as Fanny Parks, “characterized by remarkable physical (108), comparatively overlooked, yet no less fierce a Pankhurst stamina” (112), Amelia Edwards, who carried out the first for it. general archaeological survey of Egypt’s ruins (60), and Lady Within the catalogue, works on paper appear alongside items Hester Stanhope, “Queen of the Desert” (144), cleared the way in different media. Amelia Earhart’s Fun of It, inscribed (59), for later intrepid travellers such as Gertrude Bell (21) and Freya complements the pearl carried on the maiden voyage of the Stark (145). The Pinnacle Club Journal, one of our favourite finds, Hindenburg by her contemporary Clara Adams, the first woman to is a scarce survival issued by one of the earliest British women- cross the Atlantic as a ticketed passenger (13). A strikingly bound only climbing clubs (102). annual of the Pethick-Lawrences’ Votes for Women (113) sits beside Several standout presentation copies, inscribed by women the board game Pank-a-Squith (174), a rare hand-painted WSPU to women, attest to the ways they supported and connected donation tin (172), and a Women’s Freedom League sash, once with each other: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s feminist Utopian owned by the suffragette Hodgson sisters (171). novel Herland inscribed to Californian suffragette Alice Locke So many women have left an inspiring legacy in the world of Park, who was instrumental in gaining the vote for Californian books through bookselling, publishing, and collecting—such women (73); the four lifetime volumes of Susan B. Anthony’s as Sylvia Beach, founder of the legendary Shakespeare and “bible” of the women’s suffrage campaign to her cousin Anna Company (19); Frances Mary Currer Richardson, the first major with volume-by-volume commentary (6); two works by Dorothy female book collector (48); and Belle da Costa Greene, the Parker to the most renowned female screenwriter of the 20th African American librarian who shaped the Pierpont Morgan century, Frances Marion (111); the de facto dedication copy of library (77). Jacob’s Room, presented by Virginia Woolf to Vanessa Bell (176); We hope that this catalogue, and the continuing growth of and the début novel by Selma Lagerlöf, the first woman to win our stock in this area, will encourage collectors to discover or the Nobel Prize in Literature, to her Danish translators Ida appreciate anew these remarkable women and their works. Falbe-Hansen and Elisabeth Grundvig, key to popularising Lagerlöf ’s work in Europe (88). Please direct all enquiries to: Some women here are household names: Jane Austen (10 and 11), the Brontë sisters (30 and 31), Agatha Christie (39 and Theodora Robinson ([email protected]) 40), J. K. Rowling (126), and Mary Wollstonecraft (166 and 167). Emma Walshe ([email protected]) VAT no. gb 701 5578 50 Peter Harrington Limited. Registered office: WSM Services Limited, Connect House, 133–137 Alexandra Road, Wimbledon, London sw19 7jy. Registered in England and Wales No: 3609982 Cover illustrations from VOW: Voice of Women, item 169; figurines on title page (opposite) from Pank-a-Squith, item 174. Design: Nigel Bents. Photography: Ruth Segarra. Peter Harrington 1969 london 2019 catalogue 151 IN HER OWN WORDS WORKS BY EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN all items from this catalogue are on display at dover street dover st opening hours: 10am–7pm monday–friday; 10am–6pm saturday mayfair chelsea peter harrington peter harrington 43 dover street 100 fulham road london w1s 4ff london sw3 6hs uk 020 3763 3220 uk 020 7591 0220 eu 00 44 20 3763 3220 eu 00 44 20 7591 0220 usa 011 44 20 3763 3220 www.peterharrington.co.uk usa 011 44 20 7591 0220 1 2 1 Analytical Institutions enjoyed great popularity and was praised for its AGNESI, Maria Gaetana. Instituzioni analitiche ad uso accessibility, particularly in presenting young scholars with more advanced material than that found in other contemporary Europe- della gioventu’ Italiana. Milan: Nella Regia-Ducal Corte, 1748 an mathematics treatises. In recognition of this, in 1750 Agnesi was 2 volumes, quarto (245 × 185 mm), pp. 1,020. Contemporary mottled calf, awarded the chair of Mathematics and Analytical Geometry at the twin red and green morocco spine labels, compartments elaborately tooled University of Bologna by Pope Benedict XIV, making her the second in gilt with floral and scrollwork motifs, raised bands tooled in gilt, mar- woman ever to be granted professorship at a university. bled endpapers, edges red, green cloth book markers. Engraved vignette title pages, historiated headpieces and initials, decorative tailpieces. With Grolier, Extraordinary Women in Science & Medicine, 68. 59 engraved folding plates, plus 2 folding tables to vol. II (not included in £5,500 [131473] pagination, at pp. 705 and 708). With the errata leaves. Contemporary paper library labels to front pastedown of each volume, inscribed in ink “S T[o] 2 mo 41” and “S T[o]mo 42” respectively. Extremities worn with a little loss to spine ends and a single puncture to foot of vol. I, front joints partly split ALLEN, Mary S. The Pioneer Policewoman. London: but still firm, a few very faint marks to boards, discreet paper repair to tear Chatto & Windus, 1925 at bottom edge of vol. I title leaf, small tear to plate mark of engraved head- piece of vol. I p. 1, some dampstains throughout. In all a very good copy, the Octavo. Original blue cloth, titles to spine in silver, top edge blue, bottom edge contents crisp and bright. untrimmed. With the dust jacket. Photographic portrait frontispiece and 10 photographic plates. A little fading to spine, touch of wear to tips, faint fox- first edition of the author’s best-known work, “believed to be the ing to endpapers, tiny mark to head of plates; a very good copy in the scarce, first advanced mathematics book by a woman. The text is one of the soiled, jacket with loss to spine ends and tips, sticker residue to spine, scuffs earliest by anyone to provide a comprehensive introduction to alge- to edges and folds, small puncture to rear cover. Together with autograph note bra, geometry, differential calculus, integral calculus, and differen- on Women’s Auxiliary Service-headed postcard (88 × 140 mm). tial equations” (Grolier, p. 73). It is also notable for supplying the first first edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on formal presentation of calculus terminology in the Italian language. the front free endpaper, “with every good wish, from Mary S. Al- Relatively well-held institutionally, it is far scarcer in commerce. len”, and with an autograph note by her loosely inserted: “Hoping A native of Milan, Agnesi (1718–1799) quickly distinguished her- you will accept this—If in your part of the world I will certainly let self as a prodigy in the subjects of natural philosophy and math- you know. M. S. Allen”. The Pioneer Policewoman was Allen’s (1878– ematics, growing up in a household filled with contemporary 1964) first published work and details her role as commandant of scientific works and instruments. The present work, completed the Women’s Auxiliary Service from 1920 onwards. It is dedicated after a decade of preparation, was the culmination of her mathe- to her predecessor in the role, and sometime lover, Margaret Dam- matical studies. Agnesi dedicated it to Empress Maria Theresa, er Dawson, who founded the service in 1914 as the Women Police whose reforms had recently aided the opening of Italian culture to Volunteers, an independent organisation whose members were Enlightenment ideas. “To produce the book, a printing press was trained, uniformed, and prepared to work full time, and which was installed in the family house so that Agnesi could supervise the funded by subscriptions and private donations. Allen was a pio- typesetting—a challenge because of the mathematical symbols and neering figure in the introduction of women into the British police equations. Agnesi’s special interest was the characteristics of plane force. Prior to her role in the WPV Allen was an active suffragette, curves, which are depicted on fifty-eight folding plates” (p. 75). A serving three prison terms in 1909 for her militant activities. While later mistranslation of the name of one of the cubic curves, which imprisoned she took part in a number of hunger strikes and was confused the correct “versiera” with “versicra” (meaning witch), led repeatedly force-fed. She first “envisaged the idea of women police, to one particular curve becoming known as the “Witch of Agnesi”. 2 Peter Harrington 151 4 to arrest women offenders, attend them at police stations, and es- 4 cort them to prison and give them proper care” while serving these (ANDERSON, Marian.) Signed 10 × 8 inch glossy studio terms (ODNB).