Free Downloads Bloomingdale's Illustrated 1886 Catalog
In the spring and summer of 1886, a popular New York department store advertised its wares in a finely illustrated catalog featuring everything from clothing, accessories, and housewares, to jewelry, leather goods, school supplies, and dry goods. This excellent reproduction of that now-rare Bloomingdale Brothers catalog provides fascinating views of approximately 1,700 mid-Victorian consumer items (all finely drawn and easy to reproduce) together with the original descriptive captions.An informative introduction by Nancy Villa Bryk, Curator of Domestic Life at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, precedes an entertaining panorama of fashions and other articles that include a stylish boucle jacket trimmed in velvet, a woman's tight-waisted riding costume, a variety of little girls' checkered pinafores (averaging about 35 cents apiece), infants' bibs, nurses' caps and aprons, men's nightshirts, suspenders, and smoking jackets; hosiery, hair goods, notions, parasols, silverware, toys, upholstery goods, fine millinery, delicate white laces, exquisite gold jewelry (remarkably inexpensive by today's standards), as well as "willow ware, walking sticks, zephyr worsteds, and fancy articles."Artists and designers will find this catalog a splendid sourcebook of copyright-free period graphics; antique collectors, historians, costume enthusiasts, and nostalgia lovers will find it indispensable for dating and identifying antiques, clothing, and other vintage items.
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Dover Publications (July 3, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0486257800
ISBN-13: 978-0486257808
Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 0.4 x 11 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #617,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #142 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Antiques & Collectibles > Textiles & Costume #162 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Antiques & Collectibles > Americana #273 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Commerce
If you want a broad-spectrum look at the goods of this period, you should first buy 1897 Sears Roebuck & Co. Catalogue or Montgomery Ward Catalogue of 1895 (Dover Pictorial Archive), but if your primary interest is clothes--particularly the kind worn by stylish city-dwellers--this one will be an important source of information. Lavishly illustrated with detailed engravings, it lists ladies', children's, and men's clothing--everything from corsets to bathing suits to bridal gowns, plus accessories of all kinds--as well as ruching, lace, embroideries, sewing notions, carpet, dress goods, baby buggies, and even a selection of books. Every item includes a description and price.
I was slightly disappointed with this catalog. I was hoping for more house wares (dishes, sewing machines, porcelain ware etc.) and the prices for these itemsIf your interest is for Fashion clothing, jewelry, linens etc. this would be a valuable resource.
This book offers a revealing glimpse into our commercial culture of consumerism as it was just getting started 120 years ago. It is amazing the things you could buy in 1886! Medicines were marketed to meet every possible insecurity or physical shortcoming. The sale ads are just as persuasive as they are today. A five dollar watch for three dollars! We often do not realize how influential the culture of this era, the Victorian era, was on how we live today.
This is more or less what it says on the tin. It is a nice visual reference, and gives a sense of what products were on sale in 1886. It is not nearly as detailed a catalogue as the Sears or Wards catalogues from the late Victorian era, but Bloomingdales was a major name, and for those interested in fashion or household affairs of the period (a passion of mine) this is a staple to have in the library.
I do enjoy owning this piece of history. But it's very heavy on "lady" things; dresses, yards of cloth, women's shoes. There's two pages of men's suits compared to 40 pages of frilly curtains. Some people love that stuff, but I wanted a few pages of tools, of guns, of books. Actually, there were some old time books people of the 1880s were offered, and one short list of firearms. I guess the good and bad news is this: It's not Sear's or Ward's catalog. It's much different.
You would not find a more graphic and accurate description of the clothing, jewelry, tools, etc. of the time period. This is basically the mail order catalog of everything you could get delivered by train. A highly recommended resource for anyone interested in the "old ways" Makes for a very interesting coffee table book as well. Contains lots of pictures of "Mourning Jewelry"
I bought this book to help write descriptions of fashion for my historical fiction novels. WIth it's nice pictures and images, I think it will be quite helpful.If you are just interesting in clothing of the era, I think a person would find this catalogue fascinating!
This is a gift for a friend that saw my copy and love it. It is a GREAT resource/reference book for anyone interesting in what was available to men, woman, and children in 1886.
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