?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 800
Russell, Mary du Caurroy, Duchess of Bedford (1865-1937) Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, her copy.
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1896.
Fifth edition, later issue, octavo; twice inscribed by British aviator and ornithologist Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford in 1897, on front free fly leaf verso and title; in a handsome gilt-ruled tree calf binding for Bickers & Son (their stamp to verso of front flyleaf), gilt-decorated and lettered spine, floral patterned gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt; with Russell's bookplate inside front board (tiny loss at head cap and along bottom corners, joints rubbed); 7 3/4 x 5 1/8 in.
The "Flying Duchess "of Bedford, Mary Russell lived an extraordinary life. She became an aviator at the age of 63, which unfortunately resulted in her death by plane crash in 1937. Her achievements were not limited to her exceptional time in the sky. Russell founded a successful village hospital where she worked as a devoted nurse and a radiographer before and during World War I. She was the first Western woman to seriously study Japanese jujutsu, an avid ornithologist who spent time traveling to offshore Scottish islands to catalogue her sightings, and a prominent member of the Women's Tax Resistance League. In the late 1890s she became known for breeding some of the finest Siamese cats, and was president of the National Cat Club. Her bookplate features an adorable portrait of her favorite cat, Goblin, who himself was famous as an exemplary member of the Siamese blues.
