History of English Costume

Artisan: Ken Blythe
Date: Unknown
Intended Room: Library
Dimensions: TBC
Inventory number: TBC

Provenance: Purchased from the artist’s daughter and son-in-law, who run The Little Book Company, via eBay, in June 2022.

The full title of the original book, by the Hon. Lewis Wingfield (1842-1891), is, English Costume and Fashion from the Conquest to the Regency (AD 1070-1820). It was published in London by Hope and Company in 1884, and took the form of twenty-four coloured printed plates, showing charming (and perhaps slightly romanticised) costumes worn by various classes throughout history. The author, the son of the 6th Viscount Powerscourt, was quite a character, having been various an actor, a war journalist, a surgeon, an artist and designer, and a pioneering traveller. He was one of the first Englishmen to make a journey through inland China, in 1880. His publications were similarly eclectic, ranging from novels to plays and travel-books.