The Book of Costume

Found this on eBay, though there are other copies easily available on Amazon.  Written in 1847 by "A Lady of Rank" (Mary Margeret Egerton Wilton) and illustrated by "The Most Eminent Artists".  It's actually an easy read with only a handful of obsolete vocabulary.   It'll be especially fun to see how accurately it has held up, and what has been learned since.

Oddly, other versions online cite 1846, but mine clearly says 1847 on the opening pages.  Mine seems to have been gifted to E. A. Willard by Jane ? and then later donated by  E. S. Willard  in 1908 to The Academy of Dramatic Art in London (est. 1904).

The chapter on 18th century fashion tickles me with this ending-

"From this period English costume is so familiar to our readers as to render any description of it quite unnecessary."