A Guide to Window-Dressing

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A Guide to Window-Dressing
OCLC
39203562

A Guide to Window-Dressing (sometimes

window-dressing first printed in London in 1883.[1]
It is one of the earliest known books printed on the topic; specifically, it provides detailed instructions and guidelines on window-dressing, drapery and display windows for the use of professional retailers and privately owned homes.

Through its descriptions of virtual topics in business,

home decor
techniques exercised in late-19th-century Europe.

Through a lack of general reprinting, the work is considered extremely rare. As of February 2010,

ISBN 1-4367-3078-3
.

The first edition of A Guide to Window-Dressing is designated with the OCLC number 39203562.

Background

According to the original 1883 text, A Guide to Window-Dressing was first published earlier that year in a local

Aldersgate Street, E.C." The book adapted was published by the now defunct W H & L Collingridge publishing house, at the City Press located on the same street.[1]

The preface to the book states that it was created in response to numerous inquiries to the proprietors of The Warehousemen and Drapers' Trade Journal for a comprehensive work on window-dressing, and goes on to promote itself by stating the following:

"No such book in connection with the drapery trade has, so far as they [the journal proprieters] are aware, been hitherto published, with the exception of a small prize essay published several years ago in connection with the same journal."

[3]

According to Google Books and a library stamp seen on its facsimile of the guide, an extant copy of the first edition was found in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, first placed in the library's collections on 9 March 1987. This copy appears as a full-view readable version on that website, digitised on 1 May 2007.[4][5]

Illustrations provided in the first edition of the work are, like the author, also uncredited.

Contents

The first edition of the book had been divided into a preface, a table of contents and 15 chapters following them. These are chronicled as follows:

  • Preface
  • Contents
  • Chapters
    • I (1) — The Importance of a Good Window
    • II (2) — Qualifications to Attain Success
    • III (3) — Colour
    • IV (4) — The Silk Window
    • V (5) — The Print Window
    • VI (6) — The Fancy Dress Window
    • VII (7) — The Drapery Window
    • VIII (8) — The Mourning Window
    • IX (9) — The Costume Window
    • X (10) — The Mantle Window
    • XI (11) — Fancy Windows
    • XII (12) — Trimming and Haberdashery Windows
    • XIII (13) — Mixed Windows
    • XIV (14) — Fittings and Tickets
    • XV (15) — Door-Dressing

Each section of the book addresses different aspects of window-dressing and their respectable applications, and puts forward a common aesthetic value for distinct types of windows and window display.

References

  1. ^ a b Anonymous (1883). A Guide to Window-Dressing. London: W H & L Collingridge. p. 1.
  2. OCLC 39203562
    . Retrieved 21 February 2010.
  3. ^ Anonymous (1883). A Guide to Window-Dressing. London: W H & L Collingridge. p. 3.
  4. ^ Anonymous (1883). A Guide to Window-Dressing. London: WH and L Collingridge. p. 2.
  5. ^ Guide (1883). A guide to window-dressing. Office of the "Warehousemen and Drapers' Trade Journal".

External links

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