Dressed to Kill, Dressed to Till
[MILITARY AND CIVILIAN COSTUME]. Atkinson. John Augustus. Picturesque Representation of the Naval, Military and Miscellaneous Costumes of Great Britain in One Hundred Coloured Plates. By John Atkinson. With a Descriptive Essay on the Subject of Each Plate in English and French. In Three Volumes. William Miller, London, 1807 (watermarked 1805). Vol.1 only (only one published), first edition, first issue, half-title, dedication, prospectus and text in English and French, large folio, 33 hand-colored aquatint plates, some light toning and spotting to edges and margins of text pages, modern half red morocco, gilt-stamped morocco label on upper cover, spine ruled in gilt, lower corners a little rubbed. This large book, perhaps the finest color plate book on costume ever published in England, is a collection of 33 colored plates, showing military and civil uniforms and the occupational dress of British city and country craftsmen, laborers and the like during the Napoleonic epoch. Each plate is accompanied by an explanatory essay on the opposite page, translated into French on the following. The writer, James Walker, adopted the artist, John Augustus Atkinson, when the latter was a young boy, and the two collaborated over the course of many years. Previously they produced A Picturesque Representation of the Manners, Customs and Amusements of the Russians (1804). [Abbey, Scenery 12; Colas 172; Tooley 71]. Extremely rare and fine copy.
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