R.I.P., Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke died yesterday. This post is not going to be a review of his life, you can look on Wikipedia or any newspaper today for that.

This is simply a tribute to my favorite science fiction writer, whose death saddens me.

When I was in Middle School and High School I was (surprise, surprise) a nerd. A geek. My friends and I loved science and science fiction. We read it and we watched it and we wrote it. In my own particular circle, the face-off was always between Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, and I was an Arthur C. Clarke nerd.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Asimov too, but Sir Arthur had something more for me, and that was a sly sense of humor. You can see it in his mainstream works, such as the ever-popular 2001 (I'm sorry, Dave), and in his lesser-known works, such as his "Tales from the White Hart' series of stories. 'Tales from the White Hart' remains among my favorite science-fiction books ever. It takes place in a British pub, and recounts the tall tales of Harry Purvis, a scientist who can trade stories with the best of them. The stories are witty, intelligent, and funny.

The first Arthur C. Clarke story I ever read was called "The Nine Billion Names of God", in a paperback anthology of the same name. The coincidence here is that this story dealt with llamas in Tibet, who were programming a computer to compute the nine billion names of God, at which point His purpose would be served, and the Universe would cease to exist. Tibet is, of course, in the news and my thoughts today.

When I was in 7th grade we had things called "Mini Courses"- these were extra-curricular course taught twice a week by teachers on subjects like word games, fencing, bargello, weather forecasting, and so on. Somehow my friend Marc and I persuaded my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Lewis, to sponsor us as "teachers" of a Mini-Course called "The Science-Fiction Book Club". We didn't have this idea in time to get it into the booklet they passed around at the beginning of the term, so not many people knew it existed. When Mini-Course sign-up period came, we sat in Mrs. Lewis's room at our own table, ready to take our students, as other students came in for Mrs. Lewis's course on word games.

When the room was full Mrs. Lewis stood up and said "Everyone who is here for Word Games, sit where you are. Everyone who is here for the Science Fiction Book Club, go over and sit with Marc and Forrest".

And everyone looked at us, sitting at our table, all alone, and nobody moved.

But hey, it turned out ok. We had a classroom and a whole two extra periods a week all to ourselves, and we signed the "passed course" sheets for each other the first day, and just read books and goofed off for the entire term. It was cool.

And I read a lot of Arthur C. Clarke stories that period. Arthur C. Clarke had the rare gift to be a serious scientist and a witty and original storyteller, and his passing saddens me.

I raise a glass tonight to Sir Arthur. May the Nine Billion Names of God include yours.

Luck of the Irish-

A day late for St. Patrick's Day, but here's a little gem of a catalog that keeps the spirit goin' -

Davis, John D. The Genius of Irish Silver. A Texas Private Collection. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation: 1991. The catalog of a loan exhibition of 118 pieces of Irish silver from the last decades of the 17th century to 1800. A slim catalog, but beautifully photographed, and uncommon. Softcover. 8.5”x10”, 47 pages, b/w illustrations. Light wear. [31737] $125.00

You can easily order this catalog by clicking here.

Auctions! Auctions!

We have just posted an online catalog of vintage auction catalogs devoted to Furniture & Americana- many classic sales are included, and also a number of interesting minor sales.

The Amber Room-

We have a great new publisher's overstock just in-

"The Amber Room. The Fate of the World’s Greatest Lost Treasure" by Catherine Scott Clark & Adrian Levy. Published by Walker & Company in 2004.

"The team that reported on the horrors of the Burmese jade trade in The Stone of Heaven here investigates what may be the greatest single art theft in modern history: the looting of the Amber Room from St. Petersburg by the Nazis in 1941. The glittering amber panels, enough to cover a palace room, were a gift of Frederick I of Prussia to Peter the Great in 1701. The stolen panels were displayed in Königsberg Castle in 1944, but disappeared after the city fell to the Red Army. Describing the history, theft, and headline-grabbing search for the Amber Room, the authors suggest it may long since have been destroyed."

Hardcover. 6”x9”, 278 pages, black & white illustrations, dust jacket. New. $12.00

Our Latest Catalog-

The Book Elves have always been a little more “literal” than is good for them, but they usually (well, sometimes) manage to get to the edge of the cliff without falling over, so I didn’t think too much of it when they said they were going to build an historical snow scene in the front yard. I didn’t even give it much thought when they announced the theme would be ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’.

So I suppose it’s all my fault, really.

I prefer to think of what happened as a case of “over-exuberance” (though the District Attorney insisted on calling it “reckless endangerment”). After all, they only “borrowed” those two howitzers from the local National Guard Armory, and the ensuing re-creation of the final charge was certainly dramatic, even if a few snow soldiers did end up on the neighbor’s roof. Of course the whole affair attracted the attention of a certain amount of press, not to mention an array of Federal and State authorities...

But before they spent three days explaining themselves to some not-very-amused FBI agents, the Book Elves finished our “Winter” catalog-

RECENT ACQUISITIONS ON ANTIQUES & THE ARTS- WINTER, 2008 features more than 300 books on furniture, folk art, silver, ceramics, glass, textiles, painting, prints, and much more, with a special section on Maritime Arts, and much material from the reference library of a noted New England
antiques dealer.

The catalog is posted online, or we also have printed copies available. Please send us your address if you would like a free copy.

We Hit Videoland...

Well, the Book Elves have hit You-Tube with our first bookish video. The subject is Gaspard Grollier de Serviere's 1719 book "Recueil d'Ouvrages Curieux de Mathematique et de Mecanique, ou Description du Cabinet de Monsieur Grollier de Serviere... ", a descriptive and illustrated catalog of the marvelous and curious mechanical models and ivory turnings constructed by Nicholas Grollier de Serviere, a soldier, turner, inventor and the author's father.

The video quality is not as sharp as we'd like, I think we have to get a better camera, but it's "one small step", as they say. Enjoy!

Book Quote-

"A man's library is a sort of harem, and tender readers have a great prudency in showing their books to a stranger".

-Emerson, "Society and Solitude"

Gimme Some Arts & Crafts!

Here's a very fun book we just got a small pile of-

"Historic Arts & Crafts Homes of Great Britain" by Brian D. Coleman, published by Gibbs Smith in 2005.

“Exquisitely photographed and produced, this volume tours ten magnificent British homes designed in the Arts and Crafts tradition. Red House, the only house that William Morris ever built (and that also inspired his design firm), is here, as is Hill House— family home to prominent Glasgow publisher Walter W. Blackie, designed by Scotland's Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Also included are Charleston, home to Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant; Kelmscott Manor, William Morris's idyllic country escape; and Edward Lutyens' eccentric medieval Castle Drogo”.

Hardcover. 10”x10”, 159 pages, color illustrations, dj. New. Published for $39.95. Available for a limited time for $20.00

Book Quote-

"The one invincible thing is a good book; neither malice nor stupidity can crush it".

-George Moore

A Play on History-

Here's a fun play on an historical controversey we just bought a few copies of-

"History Play. The Lives and Afterlife of Christopher Marlowe" by Rodney Bolt. Published by Bloomsbury in 2004.

I know, I know, there are more books on the Shakespeare-Marlowe thing that you can shake a stick at, but this one is different!

“Without trying to prove it, Rodney Bolt assumes that, rather than dying at twenty-nine in a tavern brawl, Christopher Marlowe staged his own death, fled to Europe, and went on to write the work attributed to Shakespeare. This is the starting point for a mischievous and brilliantly written biography of Marlowe, which turns out to be a life of the Bard as well. Using real historical sources plus a generous dose of speculation, Bolt paints a rich and rollicking picture of Elizabethan life. As we accompany Marlowe into the halls of academia, the society of the popular English players traveling Europe, and the dangerous underworld of Elizabethan espionage, a fascinating and almost plausible life story emerges”.

Hardcover. 6”x9.5”, 388 pages, dust jacket. A new copy. Published for $24.95. We have copies for $10.00 each while they last.

A Nice Book on Inro-

Here's a nice new remainder we recently put into stock-

"The Inro Handbook. Studies of Netsuke, Inro and Lacquer" by Raymond Bushell. Published by Weatherhill in 2002. 3rd prtg.

“Illustrated with 136 color plates, scores of color thumbnails, and hundreds of black and white figures and drawings, this volume describes a superb Japanese art object, the small carved boxes called inro, traditionally suspended from the kimono by silk cords and netsuke buttons to carry personal items. Internationally recognized expert Raymond Bushell documents the history and design of these jewel-like, exquisitely crafted items, along with their netsuke and similar other personal objects like incense boxes, tea caddies, and sake cups”.

Hardcover. 7.5”x10.5”, 263 pages, color and black & white illustrations, dust jacket. New.

Published for $75.00. While they last, we can offer this for $35.00

Chistmas Wrap-Up-

Well, it was an eventful Christmas here at Foggygates. We had the annual Hatfield Luminarium on Sunday night the 23rd, and had some friends and neighbors over afterwards for a very nice French dinner of Beef Bourguignon which Amy spent all day preparing. It rained this year so I didn't get any pics, but a good time was had by all. Then on Christmas we had some friends and relatives from Vermont and New Hamphire here for a dinner of locally-smoked ham, potato & mushroom au gratin, and peas & onions, with home-made lemon tart for desert.

Amy was in charge of all the food- the way we do food here is that I cook during the week, but if anything calls for planning or expertise, she does it. So it was real bummer when she got up with a stiff neck Christmas morning, and then came up from the basement at 9:04 a.m. saying "I dropped the butter and when I bent down to pick it up, my neck went out".

Ouch. I mean, I never had a neck go out, but I've had my back go out in spasms, and it's not fun.

She was barely able to walk, but insisted on presiding over the kitchen all day and, with much help from our friend Anne from Vermont, dinner made it on, and was enjoyed by all.

It wasn't until around 5 pm that Amy suggested we might want to go to the emergency room, as she could not actually move without 10th-level pain.

They prescribed some very nice drugs, and she had a half-nights sleep last night and is feeling somewhat better today- though I went and did the farmer-thang and watered the six horse at the barn. Got horse shit all over my pants and gloves and remembered how it feels to care for outdoor animals in winter, back when I had ducks. You know, it's good feeling, no matter how much ice-encrusted shit you have on you when you get home. Ice is ice, and you live in New England and you expect something else than to wade in horse shit? Forget it- haul the damn water out in wheel-barrows over the ice to the horses. That's life.

We're covered in frozen horse-shit, but all is happy here.

Our Latest Catalog-

The Book Elves love Christmas, but they get very, very competitive when shopping for a Christmas tree. After being banned by the local tree farm after a rather ugly incident involving the mayor’s mother and a chainsaw last year, they decided to cut their own in our back woods.

Now here’s the thing about “home-grown” trees- they tend to be “home” in more ways than one. The first inkling we had that they might have brought more into the house than just a balsam fir came when a sleepy chipmunk landed on the mantle, and soon there were a variety of songbirds flying around the living room. It was actually very cute and Christmassy and lent a festive air to our Christmas party last Thursday evening -the bright colors and cheerful songs of the chickadees, jays, cardinals and titmice were quite charming.

And then the squirrel and the red-tailed hawk popped out...

But before they turned our living room from a scene from Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ to a scene from a Bruce Willis “Die Hard” movie, the Book Elves finished our latest catalog-

Catalog #310: BOOKS ON THE DECORATIVE ARTS, including folk art, interiors, metalware & iron, textiles, & other “Americana” & related subjects” features 271 fully described books and catalogs.

The catalog may be browsed on our website.

Our New December Catalog-

The Book Elves love decorating for Christmas, and they love seeing the big, 80-foot maples out front strung with brightly colored lights. But after last year's unfortunate 'incident' with the rented cherry picker and the power lines, they knew they had to come up with an alternate method of stringing them.

The Book Elves are nothing if not resourceful (or ever-so-slightly addled) and so they trundled on down to our local Radio Shack and bought a radio-controlled airplane and two-dozen boxes of new light strings. It was a simple enough idea- a radio-controlled airplane flies as high as the trees and is, by definition, “controllable”. It is also quite powerful enough to attach a few strands of Christmas lights to, and so they did, and away the plane went, round and round the tree.

Personally, I have always found it a pity that some of the Book Elves more unusual and interesting ideas usually turn out to have completely unexpected consequences, especially for unsuspecting bystanders...

But before they hog-tied the neighborhood carolers (and their dog) to a tree with sixteen strands of “Merry Christmas Blinking Frosty Lights”(tm), the Book Elves finished our latest catalog-

Catalog #309: RECENT ACQUISITIONS & OTHER INTERESTING BOOKS ON ANTIQUES & THE ARTS, DECEMBER, 2007, features 217 books and catalogs on antique furniture, silver, ceramics, glass, textiles, folk art, and many related topics.

HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE-

-Barber's scarce 1893 catalog of American ceramics

-Several nice early 19th century miniaturist's manuals

-A nice 1873 Elkington Silver & Electroplate catalog

-A very scarce Henry Wood Erving pamphlet

-A superlative copy of French's 1879 'Art and Artists in Connecticut'

-The book issued at the 1925 opening of the American Wing, limited to 500 copies

-A scarce 1884 book on electric lighting in the home

-A copy of Isham's 1928 'Early American Houses', one of 35 copies on rag paper

-A scarce 1816 pamphlet describing the Piccadilly exhibition of Napoelon's captured personal carriage and its luxurious contents

-An 1898 monograph on woollen fabrics of the Oudh provice of India

-A unique court exhibition of old British sherry labels, used in the noted 1967 case of Vine Products v. Mackenzie

-An important 1925 pictorial survey of Art Deco in France by Henry Van de Velde

and much more!

The catalog is posted online.

We also have printed copies available. Please send us your address if you would like a free copy.

Our New Books on Silver Catalog

It’s nearly Thanksgiving, which means a big dinner, which means the Book Elves have to polish the silver. The Book Elves hate polishing the silver. This year they decided to “shorten” the task and had a go at it with a concoction they saw advertised on late night tv called “Blast Off! –Super Silver Polish and Drain Cleaner”.

It turns out there were two reasons it was called “Blast Off!”. The first is that it removed the tines from all the forks. The second is that it turned out to be highly flammable, as they found out when they turned on the gas stove burner to boil water for tea in the middle of the job.

But before the explosion gave the turkey (and the rest of the kitchen) that “nice smoky flavor” and we got re-acquainted with the friendly fire-department folks from three adjoining towns, the Book Elves finished our latest catalog-

Catalog #308: BOOKS ON SILVER & SILVERSMITHS features 286 books and catalogs on antique silver, silversmiths, silversmithing and related topics.

The catalog is posted online, and we also have printed copies available. Please send us your address if you would like a free copy.

A Grave Affair-

The Book Elves love Halloween, and always spend a great deal of time preparing a huge Halloween party. Everyone is still talking about last year’s “5000 Pumpkin Bonfire Roast”, but under the terms of the restraining order taken out by the Fire Dept. they won’t be repeating that again anytime soon. This year they decided to stage a haunted house with a twist- real ghosts. They had this “Yuri Geller Ghost Summoner” kit they bought on late-night QVC, and I’ll be darned if the silly thing didn’t actually work! The upside was that the ghosts were a great hit at the party and scared the bejeezus out of all the kids, so the Book Elves have lots of candy left over to eat themselves. The downside was that ghosts turned out to be, well, let’s just say “unpredictable”. Call me crazy, but I wasn’t aware that ghosts did things like fill your car with lime jello. We’re also still looking for the bathtub, which was last seen galloping down the street, singing “Feelings”...

But before they found themselves stripped naked, painted orange and stranded on the porch roof, the Book Elves finished our latest catalog-

“A GRAVE AFFAIR- Old & Interesting Books on gravestones, cemeteries, epitaphs, mourning customs, funerals & funeral customs” is now ready, and posted on the web.

Highlights include-

-an 18th century manuscript collection of epitaphs.

-a nice copy of one of the greatest English epitaph books, the 1631 “Ancient Funerall Monuments”, written by John Weever, “connoisseur of graveyards, tobacco-enthusiast, sycophant, satirist, dwarf, [and] penner of dirty ditties”

-a pair of interesting 1930s “Modern” style German gravestone trade catalogs.

-an 1851 manual to good taste in cemeteries by a man who hated cherubs.

-an 1820 American manuscript funeral sermon for the minister’s wife.

-a fantastic French Victorian design book of memorial and other hairwork.

-The ceremonies at the 1883 dedication of the Robert E. Lee mausoleum at Washington and Lee University.

And much more!



Printed copies are also available.
Please let us know if you would like one.

New Catalog- Books on Furniture

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the Book Elves have become country auction addicts (though they prefer the word “enthusiasts”). Their addiction (sorry- “hobby”) has inexorably led them to another pursuit- collecting antique furniture. They began with rocking chairs, which was fine until they bought so many of them that there was no longer any room to rock on the front porch. One or even two dining rooms tables is fine, but six? And then came the project to see how many highboys you could stuff into an 11-room house (the answer, by the way, is 62 and a half. Don’t ask about the “half”, it’s a sore subject around here).

But before they glanced in their rear-view mirror, while doing 70 in the high-speed lane of the Massachusetts Turnpike, to see an antique 18th century highboy fly off the roof rack and instantly become a collection of antique 18th-century kindling when the semi ran over it, they finished our latest catalog-

CATALOG 306: BOOKS ON FURNITURE & CABINETMAKERS features 240 books and catalogs on antique furniture, cabinetmakers, tools, and related subjects.

Highlights include-

-A fascinating 1835 treatise on designing and drawing cabinet furniture.

-An uncommon 1916 book on polychromatic decorative turning.

-An interesting 1870s trade catalog of Gothic-Revival furniture.

-An early, 1841 edition of a classic American cabinetmaker’s manual.

-A beautiful collection of 1820s hand-colored plates of French Empire furniture designs.

-A striking 1867 book of colored design for marquetry cabinetwork.

-and a wide variety of classic and uncommon books and catalogs on American, English, European and Oriental furniture!

The catalog may be viewed on our website, or we have free printed copies available. If you would like one, please ask.

New Catalog of Auction Catalogs-

One of the things the book elves love about country life is going to country auctions. There just seems to be no end to the stuff we need that they find there (although I am thinking of returning the goat). But before the book elves wheeled into the yard last night with 3 boxes of Limoges soup bowls and a concrete birdbath in the shape of Mel Torme, they finished our latest catalog-

“GOING ONCE... GOING TWICE...” ART & ANTIQUE AUCTION CATALOGS of the 19th and 20th CENTURIES

This catalog includes 234 auction catalogs and a few related books, featuring notable sales, great estates, famous collectors, ancient art, books, ceramics & glass, furniture & Americana, Eastern arts, fine arts, silver & jewelry, and much more!

It can be browsed on the web.

HIGHLIGHTS include-

-A copy of the rare 1886 ‘Subscriber’s edition’ of the very first Blockbuster auction ever held in America.

-The famous 1929 sale of an entire Elizabethan paneled room, with stained glass windows, at Gilling Castle.

-The 1938 catalog to the very first Parke-Bernet auction.

-A wonderful 1905 auction of Japanese arms & armor put together by a famous Japanese monk/dealer who worked with Edward Morse.

-Many important American furniture & antiques sales, including Brix, Haskell, Little, Nicholson, Reifsnyder, and Sussel.

-A nice 1923 catalog of two private collections of Barye bronzes.

-The 1971 Movie Prop auction of 20th Century Fox property where the entire fleet of gigantic scale, working models of American and Japanese ships, as well as the modified airplanes, used in the movie ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’ were featured.

-Auctions devoted to canes, cats, cutlery, fashion, folk art, garden statuary, globes, needlework, and much, much more!


We also have printed copies available.
If you would like a printed copy,
please send us your mailing address.

The Affair of the Diamond Necklace- Part 2

[Click here for our story so far...]

The first Marie Antoinette knew of her "purchase" of the necklace was when the jewelers (most humbly and very, very anxiously) sent her a dunning letter for the gigantic unpaid bill. Then, as they say, all Hell broke loose. The scandal became public; the Cardinal was denounced, and Jeanne was arrested along with just about everybody else who had ever as much as shaken hands with the Cardinal.

Acting against some very good advice, Marie Antoinette insisted on a trial for the Cardinal on the charge that he was guilty simply because he had believed that she was capable of having the sort of "relationship" with him he had thought she had. This, of course, played right into the hands of the Queen's numerous enemies who were only too happy to have publicly broadcast the exact nature of what the Cardinal had thought were the Queen's morals, or lack thereof.

There followed a sensational trial, which was ostensibly about the Cardinal's actions but was really about the Queen's reputation. Jeanne's lawyer was Maitre Doillot, a respected advocate who was in somewhat over his head in dealing with Jeanne. He was the family lawyer of the Paris Police Lieutenant General, and had been recommended to Jeanne by that worthy as a favor -for what we will not speculate, though many others did at the time. The Count Beugnot, himself a lawyer (and another one of Jeanne's former lovers) had turned down her plea that he defend her, and had this to say about Maitre Doillot-

"Doillot had been in practice before the Paris bar for many, many years, and not without renown. Deep in his sixties or beyond, he had retired to his study, where he was still consulted as an eminent jurist. Even a sage old gentleman such as this could not with impunity survive close contact with the Countess de la Motte. She completely turned his head. He believed implicitly all the tales she spun him, became emotionally involved with his client and put up an impassioned defense of her innocence, making his debut in the case with the publication of a trial brief, the most extravagant defense plea ever to flow from the pen of an attorney in all the years since attorneys first began composing defense pleas. Fantastic as a tale out of 'The Arabian Nights', it enjoyed, nonetheless, a sensational success. And to think that it was the composition of a venerable white-wig of seventy summers!".

The Abbe Georgel called Doillot's first plea "a tissue of lies, of striking improbabilities, contradictions and anachronisms". Doillot's own brother agreed-

"The man has either gone stark raving mad or Madame de la Motte has bewitched him as she did the Cardinal".

After much scandal mongering in both the courtroom and the streets the Queen's enemies won and the Cardinal was acquitted. Others were not so lucky- the Count Cagliostro was exiled from France, and eventually returned to Italy where he was arrested and convicted on charges of practicing Freemasonry; he died in prison in 1795.

Jeanne was convicted and whipped, branded, and thrown into the Bastille at which point she may (or may not) have had a fling with its Governor, the poor Launay, who would lose his head at the hands of the mob when they stormed the ancient fortress a few months later.

Jeanne was now a favorite of the anti-Antoinette faction, which was growing quickly in France, and she was able to intrigue to escape the country and made her way, with her husband, to London.

Once there she immediately set out on a plan of revenge against the Queen which took the form of her famous "Memoires Justificatifs de la Comtesse de Valois de la Motte". These contained her own highly slanted version of her life and the Diamond Necklace Affair, as well as some thirty pieces of correspondence she claimed had passed between the Cardinal and the Queen.

"From the moment of my arrival in London," she wrote, "my first and only thought had been publication of my justification for the eyes of all the world... I too would have preferred to spare the honour of the Queen, and I tried to warn her Majesty that I was in Possession of certain letters...incriminating her and exculpating me... All I asked in return was restitution of property rightfully mine which had been seized, after an iniquitous verdict, to enrich the coffers of the King. But I really never considered it likely that the French court would capitulate to those terms, and besides, my main goal was public vindication. To this purpose, then, I eagerly took up my pen, denying my feeble, tortured body even the minimal physical requirements of nourishment and sleep until my memoirs should be ready for publication. Although we were obliged to borrow money to defray the costs of printing, five thousand copies in French have now come off the press, and three thousand more in English; the latter went on sale at a guinea each in New Bond Street shops."

The readers of England and France could not get enough of the Countess's memoirs, although what you thought of them depended on which side of the Royal table you sat on- "a cesspool of calumny" was the verdict of the Abbe Georgel, friend and secretary of Cardinal Rohan. In October of 1789 a "Second Memoirs justicatif", much more barbed and venomous than the first, was rushed to the printers, another direct attack on the Queen by Jeanne, published in French and English and distributed in Paris where it stirred the mobs to a new frenzy.

Mirabeau said of the Countess- "Madame de La Motte's voice alone brought on the horrors of July 14 and of October 5" (the storming of Versailles and the slaughter of the troops there by the 'Women's Army').

Her works spawned a storm of other pamphlets, each one trying to outdo the other in decrying the licentiousness and debauchery of the Queen. Frances Mossiker, in "The Queen's Necklace", notes, however, that's Jeanne's works were the most influential-

"There were other attacks perhaps more obscene, but they were published under noms de plume and therefore were never as pungent and convincing as those signed by a real-life name, a name famous, moreover, throughout Europe ever since the Necklace Trial".

In 1791 the Countess's two volume "Story of My Life" came off the presses, but Jeanne would not live to enjoy its fruits. In early June the London newspapers reported that a London bailiff had appeared at her lodgings to serve an order for her mounting debts. Others said that the men were actually secret agents sent by the Duke of Orleans; that was what Jeanne believed, and to get away from them she barricaded herself in and then climbed out a third floor window, falling to the street below. Badly injured, she lingered in extreme pain through the hot weeks of July and into August, when, on August 23rd, 1791, she died. She was buried a few days later in the churchyard of St. Mary's, in Lambeth.

The Queen against whom Jeanne had intrigued for so long survived her by just two years, one month, and 23 days, before mounting the steps to the guillotine in Paris to the howling delight of the mob.

Our New September-October Catalog

Our new catalog #304, "Recent Acquisitions & other interesting books, September-October, 2007" has now been on our website. It features 138 books and catalogs on all aspects of art, antiques, architecture and trades, as well as some great new remainder books!