Lot 138
Lanchester, Ann Margaret
Miroir de la Mode
The Library of James Stirling, Mathematician
Auction: 23 October 2025 from 13:00 GMT
Description
To be continued monthly. Vol. I. London: Madame Lanchester, 1803. 4to, frontispiece and 25 hand-coloured plates, half roan over marbled boards, slight offsetting of colour to a couple of leaves, ownership signature of Harriet Aston 1804 to title-page, and another, later, to front free-endpaper [Tooley 330]
Footnote
Mrs Lanchester was a modiste and dress designer who had shop premises on London's New Bond Street. According to Tooley, the first volume was all that was published, although sale records cite copies of a second volume from 1804 containing either three or five plates, suggesting that publication may have ceased before the completion of the volume. According to the British Museum biography ‘one plate is known' from an attempt to revive the work in 1807, and Mrs Lanchester was declared bankrupt in 1810.