The Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions, Manufactures, etc.: Complete Year 1816

Very good set of a complete year of this influential magazine, Second Series, Volumes I and II, 12 monthly issues from January to December 1816 bound in two volumes.

A fascinating view of the taste of London high society in the year after Wellington's victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. Includes a handcoloured plate of Napoleon's carriage from Waterloo, and an engraved plan of the newly built Waterloo Bridge.

Complete with all 55 handcoloured engravings of fashion, landscapes, architecture and furniture, 12 engravings of needlework patterns, and 4 miscellaneous engravings.

Each issue typically with two handcoloured architecture plates, two handcoloured London fashion plates, one handcoloured interior plate (furniture, curtains, etc.) and one needlework pattern.

The fashion plates unsigned but attributed to the Arbiter Elegantiarum (Thomas Uwins), and depicting designs by London milliners and dressmakers such as Mrs Charlotte Bean of Albemarle Street, Mrs Griffin of Rider Street, St. James, and Mrs Elizabeth Gill of Cork Street, Burlington Gardens, as well as gowns from "a lady of distinguished rank" and "a lady just returned from Paris."

The architectural plates show the popularity of both Gothic and Neoclassical styles, and feature Regency buildings such as the New Custom House, Banqueting House in Whitehall, the ruins of The Savoy, and the interior of Mr Ross's perfumery in Bishopsgate Street when exhibiting perfumes for the Emperor of China.

Ackermann's Repository of Arts ran from 1809 to 1828. At four shillings an issue, it was an expensive magazine, aimed at the very richest of English society. In addition to the luxurious colour plates, the text offered travel writing, poetry, French fashion reports, art gallery reviews, literary criticism, society gossip, music reviews, general news and legal reports.

Each issue had several pages of advertisements at the back, fascinating ads for macassar oil, pommade divine, Oriental pearls, imitation diamonds, Persian water, Paris snuffs, patent paraboues, parasols and umbrellas, the New State Lottery with prizes of 30,000 pounds, upcoming books, etc.

Leather bindings with gilt title, year and volume number, spine rubbed and worn with loss to top and bottom, marble boards scuffed, interior free of foxing, but a few finger smudges and spots, slight offsetting from plates. Lacks one engraved frontispiece. Five cm tear to text page 275 with no loss. Water stain to one needlework plate.