[Rarebooks] fa: LETTERS OF LADY RACHEL RUSSELL (Rye House Plot, &c.) 1773 - FINE/UNUSUAL BINDING

[ArCh]

Auction ends Sunday, March 26. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/5n75n6u7

Many thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Lady Rachel Russell; [Thomas Sellwood, (ed.)]: Letters of Lady Rachel Russell; from the Manuscript in the Library at Woburn Abbey. To which is prefixed, an Introduction, vindicating the Character of Lord Russell against Sir John Dalrymple, &c. London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, MDCCLXXIII [1773]. First edition, 4to (22.5 cm), in early/period full decorated calf elaborately tooled in gilt, gilt-lettered morocco spine label, marbled endpapers; [4] + lxxii + 216 pp.; with the half-title page. ESTC T102187.

This copy is of particular interest for its unusual and striking period binding of multi-colored/marbled calf. Some rubbing and wear to the edges, extremities and joints; intermittent toning and mild foxing to the leaves, otherwise clean and sound, firmly bound. Front paste-down with the engraved armorial bookplate of Sir John Eden, Bt. (1740-1812). A handsome copy.

Lady Russell's second husband, William, Lord Russell, had been implicated in the Rye House Plot of 1683, a plan to ambush and assassinate Charles II and his brother, the future James II. Russell was tried and convicted, largely on hearsay evidence, and subsequently beheaded. Though he was a Whig, a vocal opponent of the succession to the throne of the Catholic James, and had discussed with others the possibility of armed rebellion, Russell probably had no direct connection with the assassination plot and, indeed, was posthumously pardoned by William III. Lady Russell was permitted to act as secretary to her husband during his trial. One of the great letter writers of the period, Lady Russell's correspondents here include Charles II, the Princess of Orange (the future Queen Mary), John Tillotson (Archbishop of Canterbury), the Earl of Strafford, William III, etc.