Books and Manuscripts

(Alexander, William)
Picturesque Representations of The Dress and Manners of the English...
London: Printed for John Murray, by W. Bulmer and Co., 1814 (plates watermarked 1819). 4to. Illustrated with 50 hand-colored aquatint plates by William Alexander. Three-quarter green straight-grain morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, stamped in gilt, boards rubbed; contemporary ownership signature “Burgoyne” at top of front free endpaper; scattered very minor spotting to text and plates. Colas II, 2357; Lipperheide Gca 21; Tooley 374

A lovely copy of this fascinating work on English dress. This extraordinary work covers a huge range of social types from “The Sovereign” to a chimney sweep, a judge to the licensed man that watered and fed the horses pulling the hackney carriages. Of note, are the images of working class people, who typically do not appear in conventional histories of the period, and offer a window into real life on the streets at the beginning of the 19th century. Colas notes that the plates are engraved from earlier images by William Henry Pyne, published in his The Costume of Great Britain (London, 1804).