Barbara Johnson's Album of Fashion and Fabrics by Barbara Johnson. Edited by Natalie Rothstein (GT891)

Published 1987: First Edition / Hardcover / Very Good Condition / Illustrated throughout

Original beige embossed cloth with gilt titles on the spine and original pictorial dust jacket. 208 very clean and bright pages, heavy speckled foxing on the edges and along the books top edge. Boards slightly rubbed with time. Slight shelf wear on dust jacket and rubbed with time consistent with age. A very scarce and much desired publication. (GT891)

Postage €6.95 including additional books ordered.
An Post prepaid postage envelopes within the Republic of Ireland, with no weight restrictions from €6.95.

A Lady of Fashion: Barbara Johnson’s Album of Styles and Fabrics

Gentle readers, this YouTube video and these images provide only a sampling of the content of this remarkable book, edited by Natalie Rothstein, who worked in the textile department of the Victoria and Albert Museum before her death. During her lifetime Barbara Johnson (1738-1825) kept a meticulous record of the dresses that were made for her, attaching swatches of fabric and including images from ladies magazines.

https://janeaustensworld.com/2010/12/10/a-lady-of-fashion-barbara-johnsons-album-of-styles-and-fabrics/

Shows samples of antique fabrics and fashion plates from an eighteenth century English woman's journal, and discusses the social background of the period.

"Barbara Johnson was born in 1738. A single lady from a well-to-do family, she has been immortalized by her extraordinary album -- a unique record of the clothes bought by and for her throughout her long life. The album she compiled consists of samples of fabrics -- often richly colored -- attached to pieces of paper on which she described the garments that were made for her. ... Here are actual-size color reproductions of more than 90 pages of the album."--Book jacket.

Reviews:
5.0 out of 5 stars Unique resource for 18th century costume and textile studies
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 June 2002
Barbara Johnson, a member of the gentry, began pinning swatches of fabrics of her gowns while still in her teens in the mid-1700s, and continued the practice through her old age in the 1810s. Each swatch is pinned to a note indicating the name of the fabric ("clouded taffeta," "twilled sarsnet"), its width, price, yardage, and intended use (sack and petticoat, riding habit, or "mourning for my mother," for example). Also affixed throughout are fashion plates from the 1760s through the 1810s, from "lady's pocketbooks" and "almanacks" for various years. Nowhere else are fabric and its name, let alone its price and use, so conveniently matched for the researcher of 18th and early 19th century clothing. Bless Miss Johnson (who else but an unmarried lady would have the time to keep up such a habit!) for her hobby!
The V&A, owner of the album, and Thames and Hudson have done a marvelous job, reproducing the album in full-size, all-colour photofacsimile. Miss Rothstein and other historians have written introductory articles on Barbara Johnson's life, family, and social milieu; the contents of the album; and on the merchant's account book onto whose pages the scraps are pinned. (The account book itself is a fascinating document, and became legible when the V&A temporarily disassembled the album for conservation.)
This is a must-have for the study of costume, textiles, and 18th century social history.