Robida, A. [Albert]. La Vieille France: La Touraine & Normandie. Texte, Dessins et Lithographies. Two Volumes. Paris, A La Librairie Illustree, ND [c. 1890s]. c. 32 x 22 cm. La Touraine: 336 pages / Normandie: 331 pages. Illustrated. Contemporary uniform half leather. Fore and tail edge deckle. Marbled end papers. Very good condition. Bindings rubbed and bumped. Edges dust dulled. Two ex Libris (Lady Ardilaun & Benjamin John Plunket) in both volumes. See images. Internally bright and clean.

Provenance: Olivia Charlotte Guinness, Baroness Ardilaun (27 August 1850 – 13 December 1925), best known as Lady Ardilaun was, after the British monarch, the richest woman of her time in Britain and Ireland. A daughter of the Earl of Bantry, she was connected to Muckross House, Macroom Castle, the St Anne’s Estate in Dublin, and Ashford Castle.
Born Olivia Charlotte Hedges-White to Jane Herbert and her husband, William Henry Hare Hedges-White, 3rd Earl of Bantry, on 27 August 1850 in County Cork, she was one of six children, five girls and a boy. Her brother became the last Earl of Bantry. Her family had lived at Muckross House, County Kerry since the 1650s. She married Arthur Guinness on 16 February 1871 at Bantry, County Cork, Ireland. They had no children.
Ardilaun enjoyed painting, collecting her watercolours in a bound album, and was a member of the Water Colour Society of Ireland. The works include the landscape around Ashford Castle, the family’s main home, and views from the family house in suburban Dublin. The couple completely rebuilt the Dublin house, renaming it from Thornhill to St Anne’s, as well as arranging a grand addition to Ashford Castle. By the time they were finished it was considered a grand mansion, and hosted the Prince, later King George V, and Queen Victoria. Ardilaun was known for her gardens and named several roses, as well as having flowers named after her.
The Ardilauns were known for the lavish parties and great hospitality they showed, as well as their philanthropic nature. Lady Ardilaun worked with the Mercer Charity Hospital as their benefactor and regularly visiting the patients. She also became a patron of the arts and was greatly admired by Lady Gregory.
Ardilaun supported the Irish soldiers of the First World War, providing care packages and letters. She kept all the correspondence, providing a great resource to later historians. However, after the death of her husband and the upheaval of the Irish War of Independence and the Irish civil war, Lady Ardilaun retired to St Anne’s. Increasingly cut off and isolated by her status and history, she allowed the house to fall into disrepair and in her final years she moved into the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, where she died aged 75.

Benjamin John Plunket was a 20th-century Anglican bishop in Ireland.
Plunket was the son of William Plunket, 4th Baron Plunket, and Anne Lee Guinness (sister of the Lord Ardilaun). Born in Bray on 1 August 1870, he was educated at the Harrow School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Ordained in 1896, he began his career with a curacy at St Peter’s Phibsboro. He was then Rector of Aghade with Ardoyne and subsequently Vicar of St Ann’s, Dublin. In 1913 he became Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, and in 1919 was translated to Bishop of Meath. He retired in 1925, and died on 26 January 1947.
He was left the St. Anne’s Park estate in Raheny in Dublin, formerly the residence of his uncle Lord Ardilaun, following the death of Lady Ardilaun, in 1937 due to the cost of the estate he sold it to Dublin Corporation, keeping Sybil Hill and 30 acres as his residence, his former residence is now St. Paul’s College, Raheny.

• Keywords: Archeology & Antiquities · Architecture · Art · Art & Design · Classical & Old Literature · Ethnography · Europe · Fine Bindings & Editions · Fine Bindings & Editions · History · History & Culture · World Travel
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 103926AB

Our price: EUR 280,--