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BRANDENBURG-ANSPACH-BAYREUTH, Elizabeth, Margravine of.
Memoirs of the Margravine of Anspach. Written by herself.
First edition. "Spirited, frank, and self-aggrandizing Memoirs, which caused a stir on their publication" (ODNB) Anspach was a society hostess, and the author of a number of "light farces, pantomimes, and fables," she made the acquaintance of Walpole, Johnson and Boswell, who described her as "beautiful, gay, and fascinating," and "led an energetic social life" in the latter part of the eighteenth century. After separating from her first husband, the sixth Baron Craven, she travelled widely in Europe, publishing an account of her travels, A Journey through the Crimea to Constantinople, in 1789. On the death of her husband in 1791, she married Christian Frederick Charles Alexander, margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth in Lisbon. She died in Naples in 1828. Armorial bookplate of Lord Cross of Chelsea to both front free endpapers.
2 volumes, octavo (219 × 138 mm). Later green half crushed morocco, marbled boards and endpapers, title gilt direct to the spine, top edge gilt, others uncut. Portrait frontispiece to each, that to volume I from the Reynolds portrait of the margravine. Spines slightly sunned, but overall a very good set.
