425 - Tony Pauly, “Die Dienstherrschaft”, book for housewives, Berlin 1880, cloth binding with gilt edges

Tony Pauly, “Die Dienstherrschaft”, book for housewives, Berlin 1880, cloth binding with gilt edges Red cloth binding with gilt-stamped spine and cover title and floral border, gilt edges, ribbon bookmark, endpapers with moiré effect and label of the Royal Court Bookbindery A. Demuth Berlin, Tony Pauly, “Die Dienstherrschaft. Ein Buch für deutsche Hausfrauen”, Verlag von T. Pauly, Berlin 1880, 200 pages, condition commensurate with age, slightly stained and browned, binding with wear, 17.5x12 cm (HxW) Tony Pauly published guides to the middle-class household in Berlin; the title page names her as the author of “Unsere Kinder”, “Haushalt-Katechismus” and “Mosaik”. Her book for housewives deals with the relationship between employers and domestic servants, which in Prussia was governed by the Servants' Ordinance (Gesindeordnung) of 1810; the servants' ordinances remained in force until their repeal in 1918. Around 1900 about one fifth of all working women were employed as maids, and the servant question occupied the middle-class households of the German Empire. The work thus belongs to the advice literature of the Gründerzeit, which gave housewives guidance on the selection, contract, hiring money and management of domestic staff.