August 2020 Catalogue

A u g u s t 2 0 2 0 53 Two Classic Works On The Ancient Costume Of Great Britain And Ireland 51. SMITH, Charles Hamilton. The Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Island from the Earliest Period to the Sixth Century. WITH: Selections of the Ancient Costume of Great Britain and Ireland, from the Seventh to the Sixteenth Century. London, 1815, 1814. Two volumes. Large folio (13 by 16-1/2 inches), contemporary full straight-grain red morocco gilt. $8500. Click for more info First editions, large-paper copies, of two classic illustrated surveys of English and Irish medieval costume, with a total of 84 beautiful hand-colored aquatint plates, often against full backgrounds depicting castles, interiors, etc., very handsomely bound in contemporary straight-grain morocco-gilt. “It is scarcely possible to open any pictorial English history, or any work bearing on the dress and manners of our ancestors, without recognizing some groups of figures appropriated or adapted from Smith’s drawings” (Martin Hardie, 155). Second (though preferred) issue of Selections of the Ancient Costume —four plates were redrawn as the first edition was being prepared (Tooley 457). Contemporary armorial bookplates.. Plates fine, coloring vivid, text fresh, with a number of text leaves are remargined, including the title page to Selections. A beautiful copy.