Dressed to Kill, Dressed to Till
COSTUME — A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations, Antient and Modern, particularly Old English Dresses, in English and French. London: Thomas Jefferys, 1757-72. 479 (of 480) plates. 4 volumes. Large quarto with original 1/2 vellum binding with marbled boards (some chipping and loss to the spine labels); preliminary text somewhat foxed and browned, but plates generally very bright and clean; each volume bears the bookplate of the 1920s Hollywood film legend, actor Rudolph Valentino. French and English titles printed in red and black, title vignettes by C. Grignion after A. Walker and 480 engraved plates of world costume through the ages. This extremely rare work is almost never found with all four volumes–only the first two volumes comprise most known sets today. Many of the subjects are taken from famous travel and costume books, such as Le Hay, Nicolay, Roger, Chappe d’Auteroche, de Bry and others and are cited in the table of contents for the plates in each volume. However, in the fourth volume are a good number of plates dealing with the Americas not found elsewhere, especially a series on the dress of native peoples of North America probably taken from original drawings done during the French & Indian War, including accurate representations of Mohawk, Ottawa, Delaware, Wyandot and Cherokee men and women, as well as two after Benjamin West depicting Colonel Bouquet’s peace negotiations with the Ohio Indians in 1764 and their return of English captives. Cicognara 1776; Colas 2507 (“tres rarement complet des quatre volumes”’).
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