Dressed to Kill, Dressed to Till
[BRITISH COSTUME] Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manners of the English. Illustrated in Fifty Coloured Engravings, with Descriptions. London: John Murray, 1814 (but plates watermarked 1812). Contemporary half calf binding by Goodwyn of Tetbury (with ticket), joints weakened, some loss to spine. Large quarto (13 x 10 ½ inches) with 50 numbered, hand-colored aquatint plates, each followed by a page of descriptive text. Pages clean and bright. [Colas II, 2357; Lipperheide 21; Tooley 374]. Most bibliographies misattribute the artwork to William Alexander, but all of the plates are clearly after John Augustus Atkinson, perhaps the most talented of all costume illustrators in Regency England. This work appears to have been intended as a companion or sequel to Atkinson’s ambitious, but uncompleted 3-volume costume work of 1807.
Share this lot:
