[Rarebooks] fa: ACKERMANN'S REPOSITORY OF ARTS 1814 - FASHIONS, FURNITURE, FABRIC, POLITICS &c.

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, June 19. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/jj9n2rw

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions, and Politics. Vol. XII [nos. 67-72, July-December, 1816]. London: R. Ackermann, [1816]. Tall 8vo (23.5 cm) in early plain boards, gilt-lettered leather spine label; 371 + [5] pp.; engraved title-page, 32 plates, including needlework patters and fabric samples (complete). Tooley pp. 31-2; Abbey LIfe 212.

A nice example of this scarce illustrated magazine put out by the legendary publisher, showman, and entrepreneur Rudolph Ackermann, the "presiding genius" of early nineteenth-century color plate books. "The Repository is one of the richest sources for the social history of its period... presenting a vivid picture of the life of the time... A key to the people's whims and prejudices in literature, politics, music, business and morals" (Hardie pp. 96-125).

Spine darkened with some shallow loss to the spine ends, light wear to the corners; offsetting/spotting to the engraved title and to a lesser  degree a few of the plates, one plate chipped at the fold, contents with occasional spotting and light traces of soiling, but generally quite clean. Not often found with the four Regency-era fabric swatches intact and well-preserved.

COMPLETE according to Abbey, with 26 plates (several folding, all but two hand-colored), 5 plates of needlework patterns, and 4 fabric  samples. The colored plates include:

	- "FASHIONS FOR LADIES": 12 plates, including Morning Dresses, Walking Dresses, Half Dresses, Head Dresses, etc.
	- "FASHIONABLE FURNITURE": 4 plates, Bed Room Chairs, Hall Chairs, Parlour Chairs, Design for an Ottoman Couch.
	- VIEWS of London Bridge; Cold Bath Fields Prison; Buckingham Stairs Water Gate from the River.
	- Transparency Exhibited at Ackermann's to commemorate the Peace, June 1814 (folding; chips at the fold).
	- View of the Bridge & Pagoda, St. James's Park (after A. Pugin; folding).
	- View of the Temple of Concord in the Green Park (after A. Pugin; folding).
	- View of Queenston, Upper Canada (or the landing between Lake Ontario & Lake Erie).
	- Plus two uncolored plates of W. H. Pyne's "Rustic Figures."
The contents include much on the victorious peace achieved over France (this was before Napoleon's escape from Elba and the Hundred Days), as well as many other articles and features of note:

	- Napoleon Agonistes: A Fragment of a Melodrama.
	- The March to Moscow, a poem.
	- Retrospect of Politics: on Bonaparte, the War of 1812 ; etc
	- Account of the Sufferings of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar from the Late War.
	- Musical Reviews: The Conflagration of Moscow, The Allied Sovereigns Grand March, etc.
	- Description of Queenston, Upper Canada.
	- House of Correction, Cold Bath Fields.
	- Kotzebue: The Umbrella; On the History of Women.
	- Account of Schmitz, the German Engraver.
	- Etc., etc.