“A PECULIARLY INTERESTING AND SUGGESTIVE STUDY AND CHRONICLE”: BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED TREATISE ON 19TH-CENTURY MODES AND MANNERS, WITH OVER 100 COLOR FASHION PLATES

FISCHEL, Oskar and VON BOEHN, Max. Modes and Manners of the Nineteenth Century As Represented in the Pictures and Engravings of the Time… Translated by M. Edwardes. With an Introduction by Grace Rhys. London and New York: J.M. Dent and E.P. Dutton, 1909, 1927. Four volumes. Octavo, contemporary three-quarter olive morocco gilt, marbled boards and endpapers, all edges gilt. $1100.

First edition in English of Fischel and von Boehn’s survey of 19th-century fashion, profusely illustrated throughout with 116 chromolithographic plates (often heightened by hand), photographs and in-text illustrations, handsomely bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.

“A running description of the fashions and social customs of the years as they passed, which is a good deal more than a mere account of what people wore and how they amused themselves… [The work] sees in these modes and manners an expression of some of the deeper currents of social and political evolution… A peculiarly interesting and suggestive study and chronicle” (New York Times, contemporary review). Abundantly illustrated with in-text photographs and illustrations, the volumes also boast 116 chromolithographic fashion plates and reproductions of famous paintings and portraits of the period by Romney, Gainsborough, Hogarth, Monet, Cruikshank and many more. The fourth volume adds two additional chapters by Grace Thompson. The first edition appeared in German in 1907. Small ticket in Volume I.

Scattered light foxing. Spines uniformly toned to brown. A near-fine set, handsomely bound.