Page:The costume of China, illustrated in forty-eight coloured engravings.pdf/309

 Now preparing, and will be ready for Publication on the First of January 1803.

No. I.

OF THE

IN A SERIES OF COLOURED ENGRAVINGS.

THE SUBJECTS COLLECTED, ARRANGED, AND EXECUTED, AND THE DESCRIPTIONS WRITTEN BY

W. H. PYNE. - PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM MILLER, ALBEISIARLE STREET, (removed from old bond-street.) - THE Work will be composed of Characters, most of whom are peculiar to this Country', forming a selection of Persons whose Habits, Customs, Employments, and Uress, distinguish them from the great mass of the people.

Within the last half century a striking change has taken place in this Kingdom, by blending almost all external distinctions in the different orders of Society. The Nobleman is seldom known by his star, nor is the Physician or Lawyer discovered by the bag wig, the cut of the coat, or the cane; and had Hogarth painted liis subjects at this period, his works would have lost a considerable share of their interest; for the peculiarities of dress were often accompanied by singularity of manner; and those representations which we see upon the Stage, are but slight exaggerations upon the manners of the people at the beginning of the last century; indeed such is the effect given by the aid of Dress, that certain characters in modern comedy are represented in the Costume of our great grandfathers. But the Figures introduced into this Work will owe a great portion of their character to the Pictoresqueness of their Dress, being selected from such Institutions, Manufactories, or Establishments, as have preserved their habits even for centuries; and it is presumed that Great Britain offers as much interesting subject for a Costume as any country in Europe. Each Character will be drawn from life, and every minutise of Dress, and the Implements and Appendages to their different Employments, with the Badges of their various Offices, will be attended to with the most scrupulous exactness. In short, the Work here offered to the Public will form a correct English Costume of the present age.

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THE Work will be printed at the Press of W. Bulmer and Co. on Imperial Quarto Paper (uniform with the Costumes OF China, Turkey, Russia, and Austria,) and will consist of Twelve Numbers, at Fifteen Shillings each. A Number will contain Five Engravings, coloured exactly to represent the Original Drawings, and accompanied with Ten Pages of Letter Press, describing the Origin, Regulations, and Customs, &c. of each Subject, with the Institutions, Establishments, Manufactories, &c. to which they severally belong, forming a great variety of interesting matter; the whole being written from Original Documents collected expressly for this Work.

The First Number will be published the first day of January next, and a Number will certainly be published every three Months.