Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Book in excellent unread/unused condition. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> The European fascination for other cultures and modes of dress created a vogue for costume books in the sixteenth century. Voy- ages of discovery fuelled curiosity about foreign peoples and costume books provided a glimpse of the wider world. With illus- trations of men and women in the typical dress of a country. region or town these books were armchair travel guides; there was no need to take a trip to find out how say a Hungarian a Russian or a Fleming dressed. In 1562 the Parisian publisher Richard Breton produced the first printed costume book which included accounts of the ap- pearance and characteristics of ‘foreign peoples’ from Europe Asia Africa and America. The woodcut illustrations present one figure per sheet each wearing the urban dress of upper class ladies and gentlemen the costumes of rural folk or the clothes associated with a particular trade or profession. Each print bears the name of the country and a light-hearted legend with infor- mation about the nature of the people – along the lines of ‘the Hollander can withstand the cold but is tight-fisted. (SP)