Beschreibung:

A fine collection of Thomas Uwins original costume drawings, published in Rudolph Ackermann's Repository of Arts magazine, 1809-1828. 240 illustrations in watercolour over pencil, most designs dated in pencil, mounted on guards and bound in 3 volumes, the morocco spines embossed in gold: 'Female Costumes, Original Drawings', 8vo (202 x 135mm), contemporary red half morocco, spines gilt (3) Thomas Uwins (1782-1857) was first apprenticed to an engraver before beginning to work on his own account as a designer of book illustrations - chiefly vignettes and frontispieces. The Repository of Arts (also the name of Ackermann's shop in the Strand) ran to forty volumes published in monthly issues between 1809 and 1828. The magazine is particularly valuable for tracing the development of fashion during this long period, for which there is no other comparable publication. Uwin's name appears under two portraits in the issue for December 1809, but his contribution of costume plates over a period of at least twenty-two years is unacknowledged. Provenance: Dudley C. Marjoribanks (1820-1894), 1st Baron Tweedmouth, book label. Rudolf von Gutmann (1880-1966), bookplate, sale at Sotheby's, 2nd April 1993, lot 1 (£14,375)..