LOVE letters written by Isabella Mayson better known as Mrs Beeton, the world famous Victorian cook, and her fiancée only weeks before their wedding are to be sold at Sotheby's on Thursday April 10th 1997 in London. The correspondence, which is expected to fetch Stg4,000-6,000, is extremely rare. It offers an affectionate view of a young couple preparing their future home together as well as declaring their love for each other. The letters, which include five from Mrs Beeton, are being sold on behalf of a private collector.
Mrs Beeton gained recognition for writing the world's most famous cookery book, The Book of Household Management which was published between 1859-1861 and became the "bible" of middle-class Victorian matriarchs. Isabelia Mayson (1836-1865) married Samuel Beeton when she was aged 20 and her letters, written in the weeks preceding their wedding, demonstrate her no-nonsense approach to domestic matters as well as her affection for her future husband. On May 25, 1856, she wrote: "in a very short time you have the entire management of me and I can assure you you will find in me a most docile and willing pupil ... we shall get on as merrily as crickets."
Throughout her letters she expresses her impatience to be with Samuel. On June 1, she wrote: "You cannot imagine how I have missed you, and have been wishing all day that I were a bird that I might fly away and be at rest with you my own precious one." Despite Samuel's replies she was still yearning to be with him: "It seems such an age since I have spoken with you and I can assure you I quite long for a quiet little chat with my old man, my dear darling venerable."
Samuel Beeton's letters also demonstrate the day to day business of a young Victorian couple furnishing and decorating a marital home. In a letter sent a month before their wedding, he wrote of ordering bedsteads, furniture and kitchen utensils; the thorough house cleaning which was underway and the arrival from Paris of wallpaper for the dining room. But inspite of the pressing domestic issues, he closes his letter to Isabella tenderly: "I wish at this moment I could breathe into your ears, closely and carressingly, all the fond hopes I feel for your dear welfare, and likewise the firm trust I have, my own most loved Bella, that bright sunny days are in store for you with your devoted Swain - SOB". Isabella, however, did not consider her future husband to be completely without fault and above critcism. In a letter written on June 3, 1856, she responded sternly to his news that he intended to visit Germany shortly after their wedding. She wrote: "It would be wrong and very unkind of you to leave me so soon after - You say it is a matter of duty. Do you think it would be dutiful to me, to go away so soon ... You ought certainly to consider me first in that respect because after a man marries he is supposed to look first to his better or worse half as the case maybe."
But perhaps the most poignant of all the letters is one Samuel Beeton wrote to a friend shortly after Isabella's untimely death in February 1865 from puerperal fever contracted after the birth of the couple's fourth child. He writes: "my agony is excessive, but I have hours of calm and quiet which refresh me and enable me to meet the dreadful grief that well nigh overpowers me, and renders me unable to move or stir."
Samuel Orchart Beeton was an author, editor and publisher. He began his career with the booksellers and publishers Charles H Clarke & Company and in 1852 launched The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine which was a huge success. He left Clarke's in 1855 taking the copyright of the magazine with him. Following their marriage, Isabella began contributing articles and by 1859 suggested issuing a separately printed supplement which was devoted entirely to cookery and domestic economy.
The inspiration for the enterprise had come to Mrs Beeton when she was preparing for her own marriage when she exclaimed to her sisters: "Why has no one written a book - a good book for brides? A book to help them manage a household and learn all the things they simply must know if they are to succeed in married life!"
Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management eventually appeared in 24 parts followed by a single volume comprising the entire collection of articles. It was a huge success and continued to sell through to the beginning of the 20th century. The Beetons' letters come from a private collection of approximately 100 cooking-related books and manuscripts which will be included Sotheby's forthcoming auction of Printed Books. The letters will be sold together with contemporary photographs of the famous writer.
Sotheby's London Auction House is at
34-35 New Bond Street,
LONDON W1A2AA.
Tel: 0 1 71 493 8080
The expert in charge of this sale is Polly Bayntun-Coward.
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