Louis Godey (1804-1878) American, (3) Godey's Lady's Books (1852-1858). 

Size: (largest) 9 1/2 X 6 1/2 X 2 1/2 in. 

This lot consists of three Lady Godey books from the mid 1800’s. The earliest book in the lot was published in 1852 and the other two books were published in 1858. Godey's Lady's Book was a popular 19th century women’s magazine, known for its fashion plates, articles on domestic life, and contributions from prominent authors. It played a significant role in shaping Victorian fashion and culture and was particularly influential in disseminating information about women's clothing and needlework. The magazine featured a wide range of content, including hand-tinted fashion plates, articles on domestic life (cooking, recipes, sewing), serialized novels, poetry, and essays. These illustrations, often hand-colored, depicted the latest fashions and were a key feature of the magazine, providing a visual record of women's dress. It published works by prominent authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The magazine was published from 1830 to 1898 and remained a popular and influential publication for many years. The 1852 book is three-quarter bound, with four raised bands, gilt decorations on the bands and “1852” in gilt at the bottom of the spine, gray cloth covers, plum colored endpapers, a blue hand-written inscription on a front flyleaf dated 1857, a frontis engraving titled The First Tribute, a colored title page which says Godey’s Lady’s Book Volume XLV and is dated 1852, with 587 pages of text followed by a one-page ad for the next Godey’s Lady’s Book and an engraving of Christ surrounded by angels, and another section dated January 1853 that is 92 pages long at the rear. The 1858 book is three-quarter bound, with four raised bands decorated with horizontal gilt rules and 1858 in gilt on the spine, there are blank endpapers, a frontis engraving of a family prayer, the title page says Godey’s Lady’s Book and is dated 1858, with two pages for a Table of Contents for Vol LVI and 574 pages of text, followed by Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine for Vol. LVII from July to December 1858, with a two-page Table of Contents followed by 570 pages of text in that part, and all the edges are gilt. The last volume is three-quarter bound, with four raised bands, horizontal gilt rules with gilt-lettering and Vol. LVI - LVII in gilt on the brown leather spine, marbled endpapers, an inscription on the first blank endpaper to “Estelle W. Snow from Aunt Jessie Clark”, then the title page dated 1858, two pages for a Table of Contents and 574 pages of text, followed by a second section for Vol. LVII from July to December 1858, with another Table of Contents and another 570 pages of text, and the book comes with a small four-page catalogue of L. A. Godey’s List of Elegant Photograph Cartes De Visite. Godey's Lady's Book was an American publication that ran from 1830 to 1898 and pioneered a format still employed by magazines devoted to women's issues. Louis A. Godey, a publisher and former newspaper editor, created the magazine in 1830 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the first six years of its existence, it included articles clipped from British women’s magazines and hand-colored plates reproducing fashions of the day. Godey, wanting to provide more original content by American authors, bought the Boston Ladies’ Magazine in January 1837 and invited its editor, Sarah Josepha Hale, to edit the revamped publication as Godey’s Lady’s Book. Sarah was the editor from 1837 until 1877. (She also wrote Mary Had a Little Lamb.) Godey’s was built on an editorial policy committed to providing original writing and reliable materials for the education of a female readership. Hale and Godey steered away from politics, religion, and social issues, focusing instead on women’s domestic education from health to home to fashion - the magazine was especially noted for its colored fashion plates - and maintained a popular following and a readership that numbered 150,000 at its high point in 1860. Considered an innovative publication both because it was edited by a woman and because it employed a predominantly female workforce, Godey’s Lady’s Book fell into decline only after Hale retired, and Godey sold the journal in 1877. It was eventually absorbed by Puritan magazine. The books measure 9 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches wide and are in pretty good condition for their age. The bindings are tight and the text is actually pretty clean, the colors on some of the engravings are still pretty fresh, probably because there are tissue guards and white pieces of paper were placed in between some of the colored engravings that kept the colors from being transferred to another page. There is rubbing along the edges of the spines, light scrapes on some of the leather, brown spots and offset on the engravings from some of the illustrations, bubbles on the front endpapers in the second volume, and the brown cloth has lifted along the edges of the covers on the book marked 1858, so the books have sustained some wear, but the books have survived intact, which is remarkable for such a popular set of books, and prices range up to $370 for single volumes from the 1850’s.