As Christmas is approaching at an alarming rate, I thought that a festive-themed Object in Focus would be very appropriate.
I’ve always loved a Christmassy story to help set the mood for the celebrations, so I decided to have a quick search on our collections database to see whether we had any Christmas books at Standen. The database showed a number of books: some were Christmas stories; others had been Christmas presents (complete with inscriptions inside). A book called Prince Pharamond and his cat: a fairy tale for Christmas caught my eye due to its unusual title. The database entry said that it had been given to Margaret Field (later Margaret Beale, one of the creators of Standen) in December 1856, probably by her father. The book didn’t sound like a traditional Christmas story, but I was intrigued by it and thought it deserved to have its moment out on display.
Tucked away, high on a shelf in the Morning Room, I found it: a tiny, slim paperback that was lost amongst the larger, more substantial books on the shelf. Gently opening the front cover, I found the inscription that had been recorded on the database: Margaret Field with her [Father’s?] best love, December 29th 1856. Margaret loved to read; passing her passion for reading on to her own children, who regularly received books as Christmas presents.
The book is rather fragile: the spine is crumbling, and some of the pages are coming away from the binding. It’s clearly been well-read over the years. Our books are checked and cleaned annually by a team of volunteers, who record the condition of the books on a care sheet. Looking at the care record, I saw that although the book is in poor condition, it is stable – its condition hasn’t deteriorated in the last few years.
Prince Pharamond is definitely not your stereotypical Christmas story – instead, it promises a tale of magic and adventure. It tells of a young Prince who, upon the death of his father the King, seeks distant lands with only an enchanted snow-white cat for company. The Prince encounters fairies, elves and goblins along the way, and falls in love with a beautiful fairy. He returns to his homeland a wise and worldly man; marries the fairy, and together they become well-loved and admired rulers of the kingdom.
The book was published in 1857 (slightly at odds with the date of the inscription inside) by Routledge and Co. Routledge became famous for publishing huge quantities of cheap paperbacks, such as this one, which cost one shilling. Originally a small London-based publisher; today Routledge is a global publishing giant, producing books on many different topics.
Routledge helped to introduce well-known writers (such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Washington Irving and Benjamin Disraeli) to the masses by publishing affordable copies of their most popular works. The author of Prince Pharamond is not indicated on the book itself, and further research didn’t produce any answers. Some early works by writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Edward Bulwer-Lytton were published anonymously by Routledge, so perhaps this is the case with our book…
Standen 