Longford's Maria Edgeworth notebooks and letters sell for an incredible €200,000 at auction

It is a rare event when a significant author’s original source material surfaces after two centuries.But this is just what happened at The Cotswold Auction Company’s book sale held in Cheltenham on Tuesday, February 11.

Anglo-Irish author Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) was a prolific novelist whose literary career started with Castle Rackrent (1800), a satire on Anglo-Irish landlords, of which her father was one!

Born in Oxfordshire, Maria Edgeworth spent most of her childhood in England, however her life in Ireland had a profound impact on both her thinking and views surrounding her Irish culture.

She was well-educated and corresponded with members of the Lunar Society and also developed strong views on politics.

As she wrote in her work, Helen,: “Women are now so highly cultivated and political subjects are at present of so much importance ... Helen ... you cannot, I conceive, satisfy yourself with the common namby-pamby little Missy phrase ‘Ladies have nothing to do with politics’.”

A contemporary of Jane Austen and more famous in her time, Maria Edgeworth is now very highly regarded and in particular attracts admirers in the UK, Ireland and America.

“It was from here that most of the seven or eight telephone lines were booked,” said auctioneer Lindsey Braune.

“We were absolutely inundated with interest prior to the auction, with private viewings arranged for potential buyers, each lasting several hours at a time.”

The collection comprised much illuminating personal material including letters to and from her publishers, letters to friends and acquaintances and, principally, a hugely important collection of handwritten notebooks outlining plots, character sketches and notes for many of her well-known works including Hints for Harry and Lucy – Professional Education, Absentee, 1812, The Snow Woman, Ennui, Sketches for Popular Tales and Unfashionable Tales amongst many others.

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Jenny Low, book cataloguer, was amazed and delighted to find these amongst various paperwork on a visit to a Cotswold cottage.

The owner had inherited these from her godfather, a member of the Beaufort family and a direct descendant of Maria Edgeworth.

Two years earlier, Jenny had catalogued and sold several Maria Edgeworth volumes with inscriptions for The Cotswold Auction Company and she was delighted to be asked back to inspect more of the collection. It was divided into several lots, all with conservative estimates.

Lindsey Braune said “For such an unprecedented sale we were expecting the estimates to be exceeded, but in the event the whole collection realised a staggering £147,000.”

The top price went to the star lot, the collection of notes and sketchbooks for Maria’s novels, bearing various labels such as ‘Sketch of the Freeman family’, or ‘Notes on Emilie De Coulanges’.

“There is a lifetime of study in this little leather case of around 30 notebooks,” said Lindsey, “and we are very pleased that it was bought on behalf of Princeton University and will provide research material for generations of students to come.”

This lot realised £70,000 after a steady rise from the £4,000-£6,000 estimate. Lot 40 comprised a wealth of material to and from Maria’s publishers Baldwin Cradock and many signed by Rowland Hunter, with correspondence from 1814 to 1841.

Again, this illuminating lot flew past its estimate and, after a lengthy tussle between phone bidders, found a buyer at £40,000.

This time, the happy purchaser was another institution, The National Library of Ireland, who were strong bidders throughout and obviously very keen to acquire material from this prolific Anglo-Irish author.

Letters were particularly popular and the American buyer was successful in acquiring a letter from Edgeworth Town (where Maria eventually died) amongst others at £6,000, another lot of letters dating from 1821 to 1835 at £6,800 and a third including a letter from the eminent early 19th century publisher Richard Bentley amongst others at £10,000.

In another lot of correspondence there were references to Maria Edgeworth’s last novel Helen (1834), of which Maria wrote to her publisher that she had taken much trouble to avoid moralising. This lot came under the hammer at £12,000.

“We are delighted that the Maria Edgeworth collection is destined for academic institutions and will be in the public domain – providing invaluable source material for scholars and historians,” commented the auctioneers.

“This body of material is a direct line to the author’s creative process.”

Matt Farrell of the Maria Edgeworth Society expressed his delight at such a strong level of interest in the local author.

“We in the Edgeworth Society were surprised at the level of international interest in the recent sale of recently discovered Maria Edgeworth personal letters and notebooks,” he told the leader.

“The items for sale achieved in access of €200,000. The Society are also delighted, although as unsuccessful bidders, that the the majority of the collection will be available for research to the public, either in Princeton University or the National Library in Ireland.

“If people are interested in viewing Edgeworth memorabilia they can visit the new Maria Edgeworth Centre in Edgeworthstown Co Longford located in an 1840 school building of which Maria Edgeworth was the first patron,” Mr Farrell concluded.

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