Horda Angel-Cynnan or a Compleat View of the Manners Customs Arms Habits &c. of the Inhabitants of England; from the arrival of the Saxons, till the reign of Henry the Eighth, with A Short Account of The Britons, During The Government of The Romans
London: Benjamin White [& Walter Shropshire], 1775-1776. 3 volumes, 4to, 11 3/4 x 9 1/8 inches (290 x 228 mm); Vol. 1: [2], iv, [2] table, 112 pp, 68 sepia plates [2 plates are numbered LXII]; Vol. 2: [iv], 129 pp. errata, 60 sepia plates; Vol. 3 (1776): [iv], 192 pp, [2] Index of manuscripts, [10} Compleat Index, 30 sepia plates. A total of 158 sepia plates for the complete 3-volume set. Contemporary light brown calf (faintly diced), gilt rules and corner embellishments on boards, gilt decorated spines, raised bands; marbled endpapers and gilt turn-ins, t.e.g. Scattered foxing and light toning, pages supple with no writing; vol. 1 has 1 cm surface pit on back cover, joints rubbed but binding tight and sound.
Different engraved bookplates of John L. Nevinson pasted on first flyleaf of vols.. 1 and 2.
Provenance: John Lea Nevinson (1904-1986); Donald King (1920-1998) & Monique King (1922-2020)
[Colas 2821; Vinet 2190; Lowndes 2532-33; Brunet V, 565].
A richly illustrated 3-volume set by Joseph Strutt (1749–1802), who "may justifiably be regarded as the first serious historian of dress in England, and his pioneering works of scholarship were heavily drawn upon by nineteenth-century costume historians. Unlike many of his contemporaries, who doubted the reliability of artistic sources as historical evidence, he employed a comparative analysis of the manuscripts, showing that they were reliable indicators of changes not just in matters of dress but also of the 'manners and customs' of the time. He was one of the first to realize the potential value of visual material as a historical source rather than as simply serving an illustrative purpose. He showed an early appreciation of the intrinsic merit of medieval art and was unusual in producing near-facsimile engraved reproductions of the originals." (Jennifer Harris for DNB)
Strutt became acquainted with the collections of manuscripts and illuminated books starting in 1771 and conceived a series of antiquarian works drawing primarily on these visual sources that was to represent the majority of his subsequent published output. His third major work, Horda-Angel-Cynnan: the Manners and Customs, Arms and Habits of the Inhabitants of England,drew on an even wider range of manuscript sources—from the British Museum, Lambeth Palace Library, the Bodleian Library, and Oxford and Cambridge college libraries.
From the library of the dress and textile historian John Lea Nevinson (1904 – 1986) who worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1929-1939, mostly in the Textiles Department. His interest in dress and textile history a well as renaissance iconography and prints continued after W.W.II while he worked at the Ministry of Education. Nevinson was a frequent contributor on these subjects for several journals including Connoisseur, Apollo, and Costume. His library was bequeathed to the textile historians Donald King (1920-1998) & Monique King (1922-2020).
Condition: Very good.
Item number: 1587
Price: $2,400.00
Share: