la belle assemblee
La Belle Assemblée (1806-1868) (also called Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine)
This magazine is exceptionally difficult to find within books.google: it may be the accent in Assemblée; there are issues out there, but not easily “findable” with its title!
August 2013 — I had added a bunch of new finds back in February; here’s one more online issue — that for 1826, which has news of Robert Gosling and Georgina Vere Sullivan! July 2017 — I’m back, filling in some of the missing issues!!
February-July 1806; August-December 1806
January-June 1807; July-December 1807 (same issue at Internet Archive)
January-June 1808; July-December 1808
January-June 1809; July-December 1809
January-June 1810 (alternative link to issue ); July-December 1810
January 1811 (supplemental); January-June 1811; July-December 1811
January-June 1812; July-December 1812
January-June 1814; July-December 1814
January-June 1815; July-December 1815
January-June 1816; July-December 1816
January-June 1818; July-December 1818; January-December 1818 (Internet Archive)
January-June 1819; July-December 1819
New Series:
*Neat Find* January-June 1826 {features of the marriage announcement of Robert Gosling to Georgina Vere Sullivan!}
January-June 1827; July-December 1827
January-June 1828; July-December 1828
January-June 1829; July-December 1829
1830s
January-June 1830; July-December 1830
January-June 1831; July-December 1831
January-June 1832; July-December 1832
January-June 1833; July-December 1833
January-June 1834; July-December 1834
January-June 1835; July-December 1835
January-June 1836; July-December 1836
January-June 1837; July-December 1837
January-June 1838; July-December 1838
January-June 1839; July-December 1839
January-June 1845; July-December 1845
January-June 1846; July-December 1846
January-June 1849; July December 1849
1850s
January-June 1850; July-December 1850
January-June 1851; July-December 1851
January-June 1852; July-December 1852
January-June 1853; July-December 1853
* * *
Catherine Decker’s La Belle Assemblée webpage
January to June, 1819 for sale (James Cummins, Bookseller) [sold!]
Georgian Gentleman’s “Musings” on Women’s Magazines (Mike Rendell)
preview Stanley Morison’s John Bell, 1745-1831; A Memoir (1930)
* * *
Two Teens in the Time of Austen 
mandynn said,
January 1, 2012 at 10:46 am
Hi,
Thankyou so much for seeking out Regency fashion mags.
I recall finding Ackermann’s Repository on-line on Oct 1, 2009. So exciting to hit a gold mine of Regency era information !
La Belle is harder to track down, I agree!
Any one know if La Belle Assemblee for July-December, 1809 is available ? I admit to being desperate for LA’s description of the Aug,
1809 Bathing place Assembly Room green dress …Thanks for any help. :)
Cheers, Mandy
Janeite Kelly said,
January 1, 2012 at 11:29 am
Hi, Mandy!
I really think it’s the “French” title that makes it a hard-to-find title. To accent the e or not to accent, that is the question!
I keep looking for new titles periodically (I like Internet Archive, but they seem less forthcoming in a site search than Books.google — but try finding related titles in Books.Google and it’s a crap-shoot); happy to post anything anyone out there finds. My email is listed in “the author” section: smithandgosling [dot] gmail [dot] com.
Are there other periodicals I should be on the lookout for?? These are ones I’ve come across, and then searched for more issues; I might be missing something quite useful — so would love to know!
Best wishes for the new year!! May great things happen in 2012.
k
mandynn said,
January 2, 2012 at 8:26 am
Hi Kelly !
You are probably right…to add to the searcher’s confusion; I think Belle Assemblee slightly changed it’s title 1806-1817.
Thanks for your tips, lets all keep trawling the search engines.
You seem to be tracking down the main Regency periodicals- Ackermann’s Repository, La Belle Assemblee, Ladys Monthly Museum and The Ladies Magazine…there were a few other shortlived ladies journals such as Phillips 1790s- 1807 which sort of fills a gap for English fashion plates pre-LBA. I don’t know if Phillips Fashions of London and Paris had descriptions of their costume plates ?
There is also Heidelhoff 1790s- 1803 (?), but I doubt most of Austen’s contemporary readers could afford such an expensive publication- well, unless they were Caroline Bingley. ;)
Very best wishes for 2012 and best of luck with your blog, will stop again. Cheers, Mandy N
Janeite Kelly said,
January 2, 2012 at 8:57 am
Dear Mandy,
The one think I find that helps: to vary your search phrase. Some of these book sites (books.google perhaps especially) can have the items and they just don’t come up under the title! I’ve had a devil of a time finding the Austen 1st editions (how easy it would be for them to “cluster” all three volumes of one book…); some I’ve found under title, others under author and a date restriction; etc etc.
The one thing to keep in mind about “expense” of periodicals is that a group of prople might POOL resources. In the 1830s, Emma’s brother-in-law, a clergyman in Warwickshire, Richard Seymour, was waiting to obtain a London newspaper from a neighbor — there were election results he was intent upon reading. The paper was delayed and poor Richard was feeling the effects of not knowing the news…
So I really can believe that people found a way – either borrowed from a well-off neighbor (as Richard did), or else took a subscription among a number of them. Maybe, also, the local mantua-maker got in a copy and people visiting could leaf through it.
Thanks for the titles!
k
mandynn said,
January 2, 2012 at 12:21 pm
Absolutely..I think it was Candice Hern who commented La Belle Assembee was aimed at upper-middle class clientale- think of those fancy names foe some LBA fashion plates! (would you have a walking dress just for promenading in Hyde Park ? :) Yet, well-to-do ladies were happy to peruse less expensive journals like the Ladies Magazine to read….Ackermann’s Repository is supposed to show costumes most likely worn by Jane Austen’s charecters but I can imagine, say, Mary Crawford delving into LBA for London news and fashions. And I bet Penelope Clay eagerly shared Miss Elliot’s latest copy of La Belle ! Wonder if the fashionable Mrs Gardiner took up a variety of London fashion journals to her nieces at Longbourn ? Yes, I can believe periodicals really did the rounds of family and neighbors, abit like people’s letters which aparently, became immediate property of family and neighbors wanting news of London, the war, the ball, latest fashion or maybe a corn
riot! ;-)
ipcstk said,
March 15, 2013 at 3:50 pm
Thank you for this list, it is very useful. I’m particularly interested in the period 1818 to 1826, where issues are thin on the ground. Through your site I have downloaded the entire years for 1818, 19, 20, 23, 26.
I found 1821 here: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433081673430;seq=19;view=1up;num=9 but I can’t download the whole thing, just individual pages. Searching Google Books I can’t find it, though the copy on that page has ‘digitized by Google’ all over it.
Since these issues are well out of copyright, why does Google not have this one available?
Janeite Kelly said,
March 15, 2013 at 4:17 pm
Hi, Patrick — the couple of times I’ve used Hathitrust I’ve never gotten to the actual book; so you seem to have gotten more out of that site than I have! Books.google (as you undoubtedly know) can be maddening; and worst of all is trying to find other editions (volumes of multi-volume sets). They don’t always “search” the same. If you can see a page with Hathi, try a long phrase (in quotes) and see if anything pops up.
I’m glad these periodicals are of interest, and that “Two Teens” helped you find something. I keep looking (my fav is Internet Archive – which, yes, has lots of “digitized by Google” books).
As to your parting comment, it’s possible (1) that the issue hasn’t been uploaded yet; or (2) it’s had problems; or (3) needs something different to have it turn up in a search; or (4) it is tied geographically. It might depend on the source of the material. I’ll take a look at Hathi myself and see what I can find.
k
ipcstk said,
March 16, 2013 at 3:45 pm
Thanks; I tried the long phrase search on Google Books and it turned up the volume http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3b8RAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Mr.+Curran+strolled+into+the+Poets%22&dq=%22Mr.+Curran+strolled+into+the+Poets%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=k8lEUbK3K4Gr0AXN2ID4Ag&redir_esc=y but it says “No ebook available”. The original was scanned from a New York Public Library original; might they have limited its availability?
Janeite Kelly said,
March 16, 2013 at 9:42 pm
I turned up the same volume.
It could be a project “in progress”, for most of Hathi’s volumes come from NYPL (including vols found at books.google). Check Hathi’s “partners” list; can you visit any of those libraries?
This is probably the longest I have used Hathi; can’t say I’m in love with the tiny screen you end up using (even enlarged), and can see the advantage of downloading the whole – which only seems a “partner” priviledge.
My only suggestion, which would take a while – but get you what you’d like (if you can’t visit or find a volunteer who can download), is to copy each page (right click; NOT download, which takes too long); pop each into a Word document and save as a PDF if your software allows. 1821 seems to cover the entire year, although the “jump to” only goes to the half-way mark.
It may not be the most convenient, but at least Hathi does provide access to the book, if only page by page. I used to drive hours to see items like this, so it IS progress in accessibility.
k
ipcstk said,
March 17, 2013 at 7:01 am
Thanks. My needs aren’t so pressing that I would do it page by page. I think I’ll just leave it for the moment and come back later in the hope that it’s available on Google Books. I endorse entirely your enthusiasm for the incredible, usually instant, access the internet makes available, but I do get frustrated with huge corporations (Google) which refuse to communicate!