Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century: In the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, with a Complete Catalogue (1990)

The designs of eighteenth-century woven silk in England and France exemplified skills acquired over two millennia: in their range and quality, they have perhaps never been excelled. The artists who supplied their patterns – notably, Christopher Baudouin, Joseph Dandridge, James Leman and Anna Maria Garthwaite – were well known in their day but, by the twentieth century, they had been completely forgotten. Through their skills, and those of the weavers, commercial productions intended for ladies’ dresses were transformed into works of art. Condition: some light wear to wrapper, otherwise fine.