▪ An ivory cup-and-ball game at which Jane Austen was said to be very skilled, featured in ATG No 2269, was not sold in the Sotheby’s English literature sale of December 13, but the following lot, a letter to her sister Cassandra, was bid to a double-estimate £120,000.
It was one of a series of letters that Jane wrote during the months of October 1800 to February 1801, while Cassandra was staying with their brother Edward at Godmersham Park in Kent.
Writing from what was then still the family home at Steventon Priory, Jane provides a vivid and witty account of her social life, everything from the purchase of new tables for the rectory and social gatherings to news of their brother Charles’ capture of a Turkish pirate ship.