The Victoria Regia. - 1861

London: Emily Faithfull and Co., Victoria Press, (for the Employment of Women),, 1861. An attractive production of the Victorian feminist movement First edition of this collection of poetry and prose by authors such as Harriet Martineau, William Thackeray, and Leigh Hunt, printed by the Victoria Press in the Queen's honour. The press was founded by Emily Faithfull in 1860 to provide and promote work for women as compositors, leading to Faithfull's appointment as "Printer and Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty". The editor, Adelaide Procter (1825-1864), was the favourite poet of Queen Victoria, as well as a friend of Faithfull (1835-1895) and a fellow founder of the Society for the Promotion of the Employment of Women (1859). Procter was associated with noted feminists and members of the influential Langham Place Group - an organization of middle-class women dedicated to the improvement of women's conditions - such as Bessie Rayner Parkes and Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon. Along with providing work for women, the Victoria Press was established to print Parkes and Bodichon's English Woman's Journal, a periodical examining issues related to female employment and equality. The work is also seen bound in blue and green cloth. Large octavo. Original reddish brown cloth, bevelled boards, spine and covers elaborately lettered within decorative frames in gilt, crown centerpiece in gilt to covers, reddish brown coated endpapers, edges gilt, binder's ticket of Westleys & Co. on rear pastedown. Floriated initials, head- and tailpieces. Extremities rubbed and bumped resulting in wear to spine ends and corners, cloth and gilt bright, cords occasionally visible, particularly between pp. 224 to 225, a couple of gatherings proud, occasional light foxing else contents clean: a very good copy.