Mistress of the House : Great Ladies and Grand Houses, 1670-1830
xvi, 320pp plus numerous pages of colour plate illustrations. Green card covers with gilt titles to spine. Coloured endpapers. (Boards very gently rounded on upper corners). In its original dust jacket (very slightly bumped at edges in places). A study of the aristocratic women of the 17th and 18th centuries, how they aided and abetted their husbands in climbing the social and political ranks, and the importance of their grand and fashionable houses in that process.