Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages [Two Volumes in One]

London: Henry G. Bohn, 1858. Hardcover. Very good. Second edition. Quarto (11" x 8") containing both Volume I and Volume II, complete with 94 color plates and many additional illustrations and ornaments in the text. Bound by Potter and Sons in three quarter leather and marbled boards, with gilt spine with raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Bookplate of I.E. Lister-Empson on the front pastedown, light rubbing to boards and spine, mild to moderate foxing to text pages, but plates clean and bright. Shaw was a prolific architectural draftsman and illuminator who sought to preserve the past and provide models for artists and designers through the meticulour reproduction of a wide range of medieval and Renaissance ornamentation. Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages, which shows medieval costume, furnishings, stained glass, vestments, jewelry, and other decorative objects, is described by McClean (Victorian Book Design) as the most ambitious of Shaw's books, with "a considerable claim to be called the most handsome book produced in the whole of the 19th century. (Inventory #: 23338)