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THE LADIES’ SCIENCE OF ETIQUETTETogether with The Ladies’ Hand-Book of the ToiletNew York: Wilson & Co., 1845Scarce Antebellum American Women’s Etiquette, Fashion & Beauty Manual
A scarce 1845 New York edition of The Ladies’ Science of Etiquette, here issued together with The Ladies’ Hand-Book of the Toilet, combining two closely related nineteenth-century guides to women’s social behavior, dress, grooming, personal appearance, and polite accomplishment.
Published during the antebellum period, the volume offers a fascinating contemporary record of the standards of behavior and appearance presented to middle- and upper-class women in the decades before the Civil War.
In a remarkably compact format, it brings together advice on etiquette, conversation, visiting, social behavior, dress, fashion, beauty, grooming, complexion, and personal presentation.
As such, the book is an appealing primary source for the history of women, fashion, beauty culture, social customs, and American domestic life.
THE LADIES’ SCIENCE OF ETIQUETTE
Originally published under the description “By an English Lady of Rank,” The Ladies’ Science of Etiquette is generally attributed to E. C. de Calabrella, Baroness de Calabrella.
The work sets out the elaborate social conventions governing respectable nineteenth-century female behavior.
Among the subjects addressed are:
• Introductions and acquaintances
• Visiting and receiving visitors
• Conversation
• Conduct in public and private society
• Social rank and precedence
• Deportment and personal manner
• Dinner and table etiquette
• Correspondence
• Appropriate behavior between women and men
• Dress and outward presentation
The text is particularly revealing today because it shows how closely gender, class, manners, reputation, and social mobility were intertwined in nineteenth-century conduct literature.
Calabrella’s etiquette writing was influential enough to be drawn upon by later American conduct-book authors, making this early American edition of particular interest in the history of women’s advice literature.
THE LADIES’ HAND-BOOK OF THE TOILET
Bound with the etiquette manual is The Ladies’ Hand-Book of the Toilet: A Manual of Elegance and Fashion.
First published separately in Britain in the early 1840s, the work belongs to the flourishing nineteenth-century literature of feminine beauty, dress, and self-presentation.
Its concerns include such subjects as:
• Dress and fashion
• Grooming
• Hair
• Complexion and skin
• Personal cleanliness
• Elegance of appearance
• Beauty practices
• Feminine presentation and refinement
The word “toilet” here is used in its nineteenth-century sense of dressing, grooming, and preparing one’s appearance.
Read alongside the etiquette manual, the text demonstrates the period’s assumption that appearance and behavior were complementary parts of respectable female identity.
WOMEN’S HISTORY & ANTEBELLUM AMERICA
The New York publication date of 1845 places this volume firmly within the antebellum period.
Books such as this were practical manuals rather than purely literary works. They circulated ideas about appropriate female conduct while simultaneously instructing readers in the social codes necessary for entry into or participation in polite society.
They are consequently valuable today as primary sources for the study of:
• American women’s history
• Antebellum social culture
• Gender roles
• Etiquette and conduct literature
• Fashion history
• Beauty and cosmetic history
• Dress and grooming
• Class and social aspiration
• Domestic education
• Nineteenth-century publishing
The juxtaposition of etiquette and beauty advice is particularly revealing, showing how outward appearance, manners, femininity, and respectability were treated as interconnected subjects.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
The volume comprises 64 pages plus the called-for plate.
The nineteenth-century text block has been preserved in a later professional binding by Art Bookbinding Co.
The replacement binding is plain and utilitarian rather than decorative, but provides a secure and durable housing for the much earlier text.
CONDITION
Good antiquarian condition.
The book has been professionally rebound in a later plain faux-leather / library-style binding by Art Bookbinding Co.
The original binding is therefore no longer present.
The text block remains complete and sound.
Condition points include:
• General age toning
• Scattered to substantial foxing
• Dampstaining
• Edge wear
• Occasional handling and surface marks
• Other signs of use consistent with a practical mid-nineteenth-century handbook
The plate is present.
Text remains legible throughout.
The later binding is sound and serviceable.
Please review all photographs carefully for the exact extent of staining, foxing, and page wear.
Despite the loss of the original binding, this remains a complete and usable survivor of an uncommon 1845 American women’s conduct and beauty manual.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
Title: The Ladies’ Science of Etiquette; to Which Is Added, The Ladies’ Hand-Book of the Toilet
Attributed Author: E. C. de Calabrella, Baroness de Calabrella
Publisher: Wilson & Co.
Place of Publication: New York
Date: 1845
Pagination: 64 pages
Illustration: Plate present
Binding: Later professional library-style binding by Art Bookbinding Co.
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Subjects: Women’s history; etiquette; conduct books; fashion; beauty culture; grooming; antebellum America; social history; gender studies; domestic education; nineteenth-century New York publishing
A scarce and historically revealing antebellum American women’s manual, combining the regulation of polite social conduct with contemporary advice on fashion, grooming, beauty, and feminine presentation.
