Archive of Regency-Era Fashion Illustrations

HUTTON, Catherine (1756–1846), compiler. Collection of costume plates. [Birmingham: not published, late 18th/ early 19th century]. Regency-era writer Catherine Hutton’s contemporary archive of fashion illustrations, with autograph captions; many hand-colored . Hutton was an extensive letter-writer and travelled extensively throughout England and Wales. “Her letters are full of anecdotes and shrewd observations on her acquaintance and are seasoned with a self-deprecating wit, their direct address and dry cheerfulness recalling the epistolary style of Jane Austen. Hutton delighted in Austen's novels, and believed that 'her character is either something like mine, or what I would wish mine to be'” (ONDB). Her books, the first published in 1813, include society novels and travel memoirs. Hutton sourced and cut out (and possibly colored?) eight volumes of engraved prints showing historical and contemporary dress from various sources. The costumes range from antiquity to the Regency period, and from around the globe. Hutton has accompanied each plate with a facing-page caption; Hutton’s obituary in Gentleman’s Magazine notes that at the time of her death, “her calligraphy was to the last so beautiful, that it might have served the engraver for imitation” (vol. 25, 1846, p. 436). Eight volumes, folio (470 × 305mm). More than a thousand cut-out costume plates, many hand-colored (offsetting, occasional toning). Contemporary gold-tooled russia, edges gilt (rebacked preserving original spines, vol. 2 spine cracked, joints and hinges tender, rubbed with some loss to covers and spine).

Estimate:$10,000

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