Whatman (Susanna), 1752-1814

(24 cm), vii, 39 pp., engraved title-page by H.K. Wolfenden, collotype portrait frontispiece, 14 engravings by Jossett (tissue guardsheets present). Publisher’s dark grey cloth, with maroon title-label inlaid to upper cover. - The “Housekeeping book” is a small quarto notebook of directions for housemaids, written 1776-1789, by the second wife of the great Kentish papermaker James Whatman (1741-1798). Many of the instructions were designed to preserve furniture and other valuable objects and are of interest to modern museum curators. “250 copies… printed for presentation to the friends of the Printer of the University of Cambridge [Brooke Crutchley] at Christmas, 1952” (p.[v]). Brooke Crutchley, A printer’s Christmas books (Cambridge 1974). A trade edition was issued in 1952; reprinted by the National Trust with an introduction by Christina Hardyment, 1987 (ISBN 9780707803319). ¶ Boards slightly rubbed at head and tail of the spine; otherwise in excellent state of preservation.