(Welsh Costumes) (Gwisg Gymreig.) (Cover title:) 12 Plates, Welsh Costumes, Price one Shilling.

Bookseller Notes

Twelve numbered and captioned vignettes of life in nineteenth-century Wales by popular illustrator Thomas Onwhyn (1811-86). These include various rural and market scenes, as well as an auction of household effects, a wedding, and a hunt. They are overwhelmingly female ensembles, with the women commonly dressed in the distinctive black funnel hat - the Het Gymreig - which characterises Welsh national dress. Those with drum shaped (vertical sided) crowns were worn in north-west Wales, and those with slightly tapering crowns were found throughout the country.Onwhyn's name has been removed from the plates but his style is unmistakable. John Newman and Co. produced such booklets in the 1850s, 60s and 70s, but the booklets were often mined for plates and are reasonably scarce in the wrappers. Enduringly popular, the images also appeared on pottery and chinaware throughout the late nineteenth century.