Le costume civil in France du XIIIe au XIXe siècle

About this book

As a non-Francophone, I can only remark on the pictures, but since a costume book tends to sink or swim based on its illustrations, it should be noted this one still swims more than a century after initial publication. Though it has only 10 color plates, it has hundreds of B&W plates, and hundreds more in-line illustrations, all of primary sources. Indeed the book has at least 2/3 illustrations to 1/3 text, with many rare and interesting images, especially for the eras of the 17th Century and the time from the arrival of Marie Antoinette to the departure of Napoleon. The 19th Century part of the book peters out with a whimper around 1860, but everything in civilian French fashion from 1200-1850 is there in astonishingly clear detail. I feel sure the publishers put this out for sale to tourists visiting the 1900 Exposition Universelle and made sure it would sell as well to non French readers as to their local audience. Heaven knows, I was thrilled to buy a grubby reprint in Paris in 1989, and regardless of your French language abilities or lack thereof, any costume geek will do likewise. ---Tara Maginnis