Description
Description of Samuel Rush Meyrick's The Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands
These fine hand-colored engraved aquatints are from the work entitled The Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands by Samuel Rush Meyrick and Charles Hamilton Smith. Meyrick was a great collector of armor as well as a historian of costume. Smith, along with being a British officer in the Napoleonic Wars and spy, was a very talented self-taught artist who produced thousands of drawings. This joint venture, which Smith illustrated from Meyrick's historical descriptions, was published in London by Columbian Press in 1821. The prints from this work feature both hand-colored engraving as well as the aquatint procedure. They are on fine heavy paper that measures ~ 10" by 14".