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Supporting Chawton House in its ongoing work of fostering greater understanding of early women's writing
A Rare Opportunity to Acquire Original Artwork by Juliet McMaster for Jane Austen’s The Beautifull Cassandra
Twenty-one original illustrations and one reproduction by Juliet McMaster, are offered together as a single lot to benefit Chawton House.
First created for Prof. McMaster’s 1993 edition of Austen’s youthful story The Beautifull Cassandra, these drawings bring Austen’s comic tale to life through a charming cast of animal characters. This is a unique opportunity for Austen collectors, lovers of illustrated books, and admirers of Prof. McMaster and Chawton House to acquire the complete set of artwork created for this publication.
AUCTION INFORMATION
OPENING
October 10, 2026 at 12:00 noon Eastern Daylight Time
CLOSING
Saturday, October 31, 2026 at 5:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time
BENEFICIARY
Chawton House, Chawton, Hampshire, England
AUCTION ADMINISTRATOR
North American Friends of Chawton House (through www.32auctions.com)
LOT DETAILS
Artist: Juliet McMaster
Subject: Jane Austen’s The Beautifull Cassandra
(Sono Nis Press, 1993; Juvenilia Press, 2021)
Contents: 21 original illustrations + 1 reproduction, as a single lot.
Medium: Colored ink on illustration board
Size: 12 × 9 inches each (illustration of the tortoise hauling Cassandra’s carriage up Hampstead Hill measures 12 × 18 inches)
Signature: Each original signed by the artist
Note: The auction conveys ownership only of the physical property. Copyright and all reproduction, publication, and other intellectual property rights are not included.
All artwork and digital images are the exclusive property of the artist, Juliet McMaster, and are protected under copyright law. No image from this site may be copied, reproduced, downloaded, stored, redistributed, or altered in any form or format without explicit prior written permission from the artist.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Juliet McMaster is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Alberta, a founding member of the Jane Austen Society of America (JASNA), and a frequent speaker at JASNA Annual General Meetings. She is the author of Jane Austen on Love and Jane Austen, Young Author, and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen and The Child Writer from Austen to Woolf. Her other scholarly books include studies of Thackeray, Trollope, and Dickens. She also designed one of the gargoyles that guards Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC
MEET THE ARTIST
NAFCH will have a table at the 2026 JASNA AGM in Tucson, Arizona, with information about the auction and a display of illustrations. Juliet McMaster will be in attendance at the tables for NAFCH or the Juvenilia Press and will be happy to discuss her artwork and the history of The Beautifull Cassandra.
THE STORY BEHIND THE ART
Prof. McMaster was “smitten” with a cheeky story written by a 12-year-old Jane Austen about Cassandra, a young girl who falls in love with a bonnet, and conceived the idea of transforming the short work into a picture book for children, with the human characters reimagined as small animals. J. David (Jack) Grey, one of the founders of JASNA, encouraged the project, and the resulting book was published by Canadian publisher Sono Nis Press in 1993.
Its success led to further versions of The Beautifull Cassandra. The story was set to music for flute and Celtic harp by Joanne Forman and adapted into a ballet by Amber Vasquez for the Taos Youth Ballet.
The project encouraged McMaster to start the Juvenilia Press in 1994, which gives university students practical experience in textual editing, annotation, and scholarly publication as well as makes juvenile writing by famous authors available to the public. Read about the founding of the Press in Juliet’s own words.
Thanks to Prof. McMaster’s generosity, all proceeds from the auction will benefit Chawton House. NAFCH is very grateful to Juliet for the generous gift of her original illustrations.
Thanks also go to all the bidders helping to support Chawton House.
For collectors of Jane Austen or original book illustrations, this auction offers the opportunity to acquire a tangible connection to one of Austen’s earliest and most exuberant works and to one of our most beloved Austen scholars—while also supporting the preservation and study of women’s literary history at Chawton House.