Letters of Queen Victoria: A Selection from her Majesty’s Correspondence Between the Years 1837 and 1861.

VICTORIA, Queen. Edited by Arthur Christopher and Viscount Esher.

$3,500.00

Item Number: 132058

London: John Murray, 1907.

First edition set of this selection of the letters of Queen Victoria, written between 1837 and 1861. Octavo, bound in three quarter morocco by Henry Southeran and Co. with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, illustrated with tissue-guarded engravings including tissue-guarded frontispieces to each volume. Gift inscription tipped in dedicating this set to prominent Freemason and British Liberal Party politician Harry Manfield. With a partially printed Queen’s Warrant dated 17 February 1883 signed by Queen Victoria and an additional note in her hand requesting the presence of her governess Johanna Clara Louise Lehzen laid in. In near fine condition. An attractive set.

In her early years, Queen Victoria formed the habit of methodologically preserving her private letters. After her accession to the throne, she treated her official papers similarly and bound them into volumes, resulting in this extraordinary collection illustrating the development of her character and disposition and revealing the laborious patience with which she kept herself informed of the minutest details of political and social movements both in her own and other countries. Victoria's "Letters" were issued in three series of three volumes each, this being the first. The final series was issued in 1928.