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Marguerite Vaughan Eller Book Collection

The Marguerite Vaughan Eller Book Collection (HIL-SPECVA) contains over 240 titles of specially bound and illustrated editions, with over 140 titles from the Limited Editions Club. It also contains two facsimiles of manuscripts from the early middle ages: the Book of Kells and the Domesday Book. Although the books in the collection range from the mid-18th to the 20th century, the Limited Editions Club items represent classics from ancient to modern literature. The collection was donated to Archives & Special Collections by Marguerite Vaughan Eller (1903-1991) between the late 1980s and early 1990s. Vaughan Eller was a UNB benefactor and a fine arts philanthropist in Fredericton, Toronto, and Montreal who received an honorary doctorate of letters from UNB (1987) and the title of a Governor Emerita (1989) in recognition of her contributions to UNB.1 The Limited Editions Club (LEC) was founded in New York by George Macy (1900-1956) in 1929 and provided its subscribers with luxury books; the books were limited to 1,500-2,000 copies, illustrated with original artwork, printed in fine typography and large formats with dust jackets and slipcases.2 Between 1929 to 1985, the LEC has issued 548 titles using the talents of renowned artists, printers, designers, and binders.3 After Sidney Shiff (1924-2010) purchased the Limited Editions Club in 1978, the focus shifted to artists’ books, illustrated with original works by major American and European artists, with a limited production run of 300 copies.4 Artists’ books originated in the fine press movement of 19th and early 20th century Europe and North America; publishers collaborated with artists to revive historic book production processes and made books as new art products accessible to the middle classes.5 Parallel to the low-cost paperback market, the Limited Editions Club, and other publishers, such as Arion Press and Universal Limited Art Editions, distinguished themselves by adapting the past artists’ books model into the 20th century.6 Market prices for these books range from $100 to over $8,000 CAD for editions signed by artists and writers. For a catalogue of works in the Limited Editions Club, see Great and Good Books: A Bibliographical Catalogue of the Limited Editions Club, 1929-1985 from 1989. Specific titles produced in this series that UNB owns in Special Collections range from 1954 to 1971.   

The limited-edition facsimile of the Book of Kells arrived at UNB in March 1990 and was the subject of the Third Milham Lecture by Thomas P. Power. It is the first, full-colour facsimile of this manuscript resulting from a ten-year collaboration between the Fine Art Facsimile Publisher Faksimile-Verlag Luzern of Switzerland and Trinity College, Dublin.7 The combination of sophisticated reproduction techniques and the invention of a new book cradle to protect the original manuscript during photographing resulted in a high-quality reproduction of the colour and appearance of the original pages, including the damage, such as worm holes.8 Characterized by colourful, full-page illustrations, Irish majuscule calligraphy, and Insular style illumination, inspired by metalwork, sculpture, and existing manuscripts, the Book of Kells is a product of 9th-century Celtic monasticism.9 The original manuscript contains 340 vellum leaves with a Latin version of the Gospels in the New Testament.10 While it was most likely completed in the Kells monastery of Columba, it was produced between scriptoria in Iona, Northumbria, and Kells.11 For the most recent, high-quality digital reproduction of the Book of Kells, see the Dublin Trinity College Library.

The Great Domesday Book is the other early medieval facsimile in UNB’s Special Collections. A 1986 work of Alecto Historical Editions, the two volumes contain stitched quires loose in 6 numbered folders, in 2 solander boxes, with a matching box set of translations and a set of indexes and maps. The Great Domesday Book is a public record of a large-scale survey of land holders ordered by William I in 1085 to assess and consolidate his kingdom before his death and provide information for the ruling elite.12 Although the text is in Latin, the edition includes translations. This survey records ownership of land, its value and use (including labour force and livestock), and the owner’s tax obligations.13 It spans most English counties after Norman Conquest, divided in 7 “circuits,” but is missing eastern counties due to the work halting in the fall of 1087 following William’s death. Completed in under a year, the survey required significant efforts of literate clerics and scribes whose participation can be surmised from the presence of several hands in the documents.14 Appointed commissioners worked with Geld (land tax) records assembled in shire courts and Church records to locate relevant information.15 The Great Domesday Book has been useful for historians studying the settlement of people, genealogy, as well as English economic, legal, and administrative history. While the original manuscript is held at the London National Archives, there is also a digitized version searchable by town or landowner name.

  • 1“Lucile Marguerite Vaughan Succumbs,” New Brunswick Telegraph Journal, August 6, 1991; “Marguerite Vaughn Eller Becomes Governor Emerita,” UNB Perspectives 16, no. 4, 1989.
  • 2Margaret W. Fleming, “Limited Editions Club” in Dictionary of Literary Biography, ed. P. Dzwonkoski, v. 46, (Detroit: Gale Research C., 1986): 210-2011; Edward Halpern, A Guide to Collecting Books by the Limited Editions Club, June 3, 2021, accessed July 24, 2023 https://www.abebooks.com/books/george-macy-illustrated-classics/limited-editions-club.shtml
  • 3Halpern, A Guide to Collecting Books by the Limited Editions Club.
  • 4Bill R. Majure, “A Brief History of the Limited Editions Club,” accessed July 24, 2023 https://www.majure.net/lechistory.htm
  • 5Jae Jennifer Rossman, “The Book as Art,” in A Companion to the History of the Book, eds., Simon Eliot and Jonathan Rose (Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons, 2020), 667.
  • 6Rossman, “The Book as Art,” 667.
  • 7Peter Fox, “Introduction,” in The Book of Kells: Ms. 58, Trinity College Library, Dublin: Commentary (Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag Luzern, 1990): 17-26, 19.
  • 8Fox, “Introduction,” in The Book of Kells: Ms. 58, Trinity College Library, Dublin: Commentary, 19.
  • 9Jonathan J. G. Alexander, “The Illumination,” in The Book of Kells: Ms. 58, Trinity College Library, Dublin: Commentary, ed. Peter Fox (Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag Luzern, 1990): 265-303; Bernard Meehan, “The Script,” in The Book of Kells: Ms. 58, Trinity College Library, Dublin: Commentary, ed. Peter Fox (Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag Luzern, 1990): 245-256.
  • 10Fox, “Introduction,” 17.
  • 11Bernard Meehan, “The History of the Manuscript,” in The Book of Kells: Ms. 58, Trinity College Library, Dublin: Commentary, ed. Peter Fox (Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag Luzern, 1990): 317-329.
  • 12H. R. Loyn, “A General Introduction to Domesday Book,” in Domesday Book Studies, eds. Ann Williams and R.W.H. Erskine (London: Alecto Historical Editions, 1987), 3, 12.
  • 13Loyn, “A General Introduction to Domesday Book,” 5; National Archives UK, Domesday Book Research Guide, accessed July 24, 2003 https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/domesday-book/
  • 14Loyn, “A General Introduction to Domesday Book,” 7.
  • 15Loyn, “A General Introduction to Domesday Book,” 6.