Rare Jane Austen letter to sister to be sold at auction

Kept in a private collection for more than a century, the 1813 letter to the author’s sister Cassandra details her thoughts on dentists, fashion and daily life

Caps with “large full bows of very narrow ribbon … one over the right temple, perhaps, and another at the left ear” were the height of fashion in 1813 – at least according to Jane Austen, who informs her sister Cassandra of the latest trend in a rare letter that will be auctioned at Bonhams in New York next month.

Letters from Austen seldom come up for auction, because Cassandra and other members of the novelist’s family destroyed the majority of them in the 1840s. Of the estimated 3,000 missives written by Austen, only around 161 survive, of which around 95 are to Cassandra.

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