Lady de Rothschild: Extracts from her notebooks with a preface by her daughter, Constance Battersea

FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY EDITOR. Large 8vo, incl. frontis portrait of Lady de Rothschild with Elfie, her Yorkshire terrier. Original lavender cloth, lettered and ruled in gilt. Top edge gilt, other untrimmed. Extremities bruised and worn, cloth rubbed, gently soiled, stain to head of spine. Feps heavily tanned, some foxing, "Orotava Library, Dec. 1920" inscribed in brown ink to front pastedown, "B.R.32" in black pen to ffep and on verso, inscribed by Battersea in brown ink: "To Mrs Boreham, from Constance Battersea, in remembrance of memories in common, Villa dei Cipressi [?], Varenna, May 13. 1913". Good+ An understandably well-handled first edition copy of extracts from Louisa, Lady de Rothschild's notebooks, edited and inscribed by her daughter, the society hostess, temperance campaigner and philanthropist, Constance Flower, Lady Battersea, to her fellow benefactor, Mary Boreham, the founder of Orotava Library, now known as the English Library, Tenerife: "in remembrance of memories in common, Villa dei Cipressi [?], Varenna, May 13. 1913". The philanthropic pair seem, then, to have met and forged a connection during a visit to Varenna, Lake Como, Italy. Now known as the British Library of Puerto de la Cruz, the Orotava Library began life in the eclectic book collection that Mary and Walter Boreham brought with them to Tenerife in 1890 and began to lend to fellow British expats living in the Orotava area. The Library opened in 1903 and upon Mrs. Boreham's death in 1917, it received her private collection of 4000 books. A book sale followed at some point, with other books being lost to the climate.…