Esther

1868 · rif. 17465 — London: Emily Faithfull Victoria Press n.d. 1868 First edition. Original blue cloth stamped in gilt. . Twenty-nine chromolithograph plates each with a blank protective page plus 9 pages of descriptions of the plates. The plates include depictions of the Ark of the Covenant with cherubim enclosed in a 15th century-style border plate #4; the emblems of 12 saints including Saint Peter's keys plate #7; and church windows with the cross anchor and heart symbols worked into the glass plate #10. Some soiling and wear to cloth. All edges gilt. Dark brown endpapers. Contemporary ink ownership signature to front flyleaf. Some foxing to blanks as usual. A very good clean copy of a beautiful book. Emily Faithfull 1835 - 1895 was Queen Victoria's official printer the founder of Victoria Press a founding member of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women and a popular novelist and memoirist. Upon establishing the Victoria Press in 1860 she provided training for women interested in printing and employed mostly women as typesetters and proofreaders. Other important Victoria Press publications included The Victoria Regia 1861 which earned Faithfull her position as the official printer to Queen Victoria and A Welcome a collection of poetry edited by Isa Craig that included the first appearances of poems by D.G. Rosetti Harriet Martineau and more. Faithfull also published the periodical Victoria Magazine which ran from 1863 to 1880 and often featured Faithfull's own writing on the importance of employment opportunities for women. Esther Faithfull Fleet 1823 - 1908 was also the illustrator of 38 Texts 1872 which was published by her younger sister Emily and included contributions by their father Ferdinand 1789 – 1871; Roses With and Without Thorns 1878; and The Dayspring from on High 1904. Emily Faithfull, Victoria Press, hardcover