Description de la Ville de Paris

1717

De Beer Fb 1717 B

F. Fournier

Traditionally, the field of book collecting has been dominated by men. However, there were women book collectors. The library amassed by Lady (Dowager) Arundell, who was Mary Christina Conquest (c.1743-1813) before she married Henry Arundell, 8th Baron Arundell of Wardour (1740–1808), was obviously large enough to warrant a bookplate. Indeed, according to Norna Labouchere in Ladies’ Bookplates (1895), the Dowager (a widow holding property received from her deceased husband) had two: this lozenge-shaped version with lion and owl supporters, and another, but signed ‘W.H.’ Above the bookplate, someone has made an adjustment to the shelf mark, which indicates where the book is positioned in a particular bookshelf. Her motto is Deo Date (Give unto God).