The Follies & Fashions of Our Grandfathers (1807)

London: Field & Tuer, et al., 1886. Signed limited edition of printer-publisher Andrew Tuer’s selections from popular Georgian periodicals, number 199 of 250 large paper copies, containing the earliest impressions of the plates. Tuer compiles “the most amusing and characteristic matter” from twenty-four magazines published in the year 1807, including the Annual Register and Lady’s Magazine, illuminating the follies (“feeble music,” “trifles,” “rhymes”) and fashions of the day. An early champion of ephemera, Tuer observes that these periodicals “are now beginning to be prized for their own sake,” and notes the documentary value of ads: “the most trustworthy history of lottery mania.” In addition to portraits, sporting scenes, and Hogarth prints, Tuer offers hand-colored plates of daily fashions and court dress. This large paper edition was issued alongside a printing of three special copies on brown paper (including one for the British Museum and one for the author) and the octavo trade edition. A handsome near-fine example, in the scarce variant striped binding. Quarto, measuring 9.75 x 7.25 inches: [10], vi, 366, [2], 8 pages of advertisements. Original multicolored striped cloth; gold-bordered linen labels to upper board and spine, with embroidered titles in black; raised bands; top edge gilt, floral cloth endpapers, linen bookmark embroidered with title. Color frontispiece and 36 engraved plates, 17 of them hand-colored and heightened in silver and gold; two facsimile advertisements on newsprint. Lightest offsetting to endleaves, faint smudging and a few short clean edge tears. (Inventory #: 1003824)