THE BOOK OF COSTUME: OR, ANNALS OF FASHION, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME. BY A LADY OF RANK. ILLUSTRATED With numerous Engravings on Wood, BY THE MOST EMINENT ARTISTS. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, 13 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1846. 96. 1 ADVERTISEMENT. THE Book of Costume! Though the philosopher and the politician may, perhaps, at the first glance, be disposed to regard with some degree of disdain the subject of which the writer has ventured to treat in this volume, yet a little reflection will be sufficient to convince them that, after all, it is not so frivolous as they may have imagined. Costume, comprehending all that relates to Dress and Fashion, furnishing a standard of civilization, involving the interests of the arts and of commerce, is, in fact, an important element in the prosperity of States. The study of its changes, their causes, and their consequences, cannot, therefore, be unworthy the attention of the scholar or the statesman-of the man of business, or the man of pleasure; while there are few readers of the gentler sex to whom it can fail to prove a theme of exciting interest. |