The Victoria Regia: A Volume of Original Contributions in Poetry and Prose

London: Printed and Published by Emily Faithfull and Co., Victoria Press, (for the employment of Women). 1861., 1861, 1861. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good +. A Very Good + copy of "The Victoria Regia" printed and published by Emily Faithfull and Co.'s Victoria Press, in the Publisher's original green cloth with the front board decorated in gilt and the spine lettered and decorated in gilt, TOGETHER WITH AN ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LETTER SIGNED BY EMILY FAITHFULL on the recto of a small piece of headed stationary bearing the address of "52, BRYANSTON STREET. // HYDE PARK. W." The closed page block's edges are also in gilt. The volume shows general wear with some rubbing through (as shown in the images). The page block gilt is a bit dulled by age and the binding's gilt remains in the best condition of any copy we ever have seen. Within, the leaves are in nice condition and show scattered foxing, and the volume is partially over-opened in one place as shown in one of the images provided. The volume has been "DEDICATED By Special Permission TO HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY THE QUEEN". Along with other women of like mind, Emily Faithfull advocated for legal reform in women's status (including suffrage), women's employment, and improved educational opportunities for girls and women, with her greatest efforts centered on advancing women's employment opportunities which were, at the time, quite limited. To improve their employment opportunities, in 1860 she founded printing establishment for women, called The Victoria Press. While many believed that a woman could not work as compositors (those arrange type for printing or keys text into a composing machine) she employed over a dozen of them at her Press and used men to do the heaviest lifting, The Victoria Press developed a reputation for doing excellent work that and Faithfull was appointed printer and publisher in ordinary to Queen Victoria, making her the official printer and publisher of the Queen. While the press published other things, The Victoria Regia was its most notable book. The volume contains works by many prominent writers, including three Trollopes: Anthony Trollope, Thomas Adolphus Trollope, and Theodosia Garrow Trollope (formerly Theodosia Garrow) the wife of Thomas Adolphus Trollope. She published her first book of poetry in 1839, and her reputation then rivaled that of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In a letter to Robert Browning, her fellow writer and poet Walter Savage Landor, praised her poetry, stating that: “This very year there is in the Book of Beauty a poem by my friend Theodosia Garrow, on Italy, far surpassing those of M. Angelo and Filicaia. Sappho is far less intense. Pindar is far less animated.” While living in Italy, she and Thomas Adolphus Trollope purchased a villa and her hospitality led to its becoming the center of British Society in the city. This notable book is, in our experience, does not often appear on the general market. In our over four decades of diligent searching for Anthony Trollope rarities, we have encountered only three copies of it. A rather attractive copy of this NOTABLE BOOK PUBLISHED BY A WOMEN USING WOMEN IN ITS PRODUCTION. RATHER SCARE INDEED. [ADDITIONAL IMAGES CAN BE FOUND AT OUR ALLINGTONBOOKS SITE.]

TOGETHER WITH: FAITHFUL
Autograph Note Signed ‘E.Faithfull’ to Mr. Markby, encouraging him to come some night to Sadler’s Wells. A good one page example, 7 x 4 inches. 52 Bryanston Street, 15 May 1887.

Emily Faithfull (1835 – 1895), English women's rights activist, and publisher, who founded the Victoria Press in London in 1860. From encyclopedia dot com: Faithfull, Emily (1835–1895)

Faithfull, Emily (1835–1895)
English feminist, philanthropist, and business-woman. Name variations: Faithful. Born at Headley Rectory in Surrey, England, in 1835; died in Manchester, England, on May 31, 1895; youngest daughter of Ferdinand Faithfull (rector of Headley, near Epsom, England); attended boarding school in Kensington and was presented at court.

Emily Faithfull, aware of the lack of opportunities for women in industry, set up her own printing firm in Edinburgh in 1857, employing women only. Moving to London the following year, she became secretary of the first Society for Promoting the Employment of Women. Two years later, she founded the Victoria Press in Great Coram Street. But because she employed women along with men, the company was received with hostility from the printer's unions; presumably because it encouraged immorality. Even so, it soon acquired a reputation for excellent work, and in 1862 Faithfull was appointed printer and publisher-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria . In 1863, she started the Victoria Magazine, a monthly that for 18 years advocated a woman's right to hold monetary employment. Faithfull also became involved with publications that her firm printed, including The English-woman's Journal, and published a novel in 1868, Change Upon Change: A Love Story.

In 1864, her reputation was permanently tarnished when she became involved in a highly publicized divorce suit between Henry Codrington (later admiral) and Helen Codrington . Faithfull resigned from the Victoria Press, but after joining the Women's Trade Union League she founded the West London Express in 1877, again staffed by women compositors. She also lectured widely and successfully on women's issues both in England and the United States, which she had visited in 1872 and would again in 1882. In 1888, Faithfull was awarded a civil list pension of £50.