Great Britain Native Costumes

Q'ero is an isolated indigenous community in southern Peru, on the eastern slope of the Andes. In this harsh environment, a rich and complex textile tradition, the chief artistic expression of the Q'ero people, has endured from pre-Hispanic times. Woven from the hair of local alpacas, the colorful shawls, ponchos, bags, and other textiles produced are worn daily and form part of the rituals and ceremonies of Q'ero. Examining the textile traditions that are distinctive to Q'ero within those of th... [Read More]

Immortalized in The Last of the Mohicans, the True Story of a Pivotal Battle in the British and French War for the North American ContinentThe opening years of the French and Indian War were disastrous for the British. In 1755 General Braddock’s troops were routed at the Battle of Monongahela and by the middle of 1756 Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario had fallen. Hindered by quarrelsome provincial councils, incompetent generals, and the redcoats’ inability to adapt to wilderness warfare, Britain w... [Read More]

The rich textile traditions of Central and South America stem from a society whose culture is firmly rooted in the weaving of cloth. This book looks at both the differences and the similarities between the weaving and textile techniques and traditions of the various Latin American countries, and explores the symbolic meanings of the designs woven into or imprinted onto the cloth. Topics covered include design and production, including types of looms and the various methods of spinning and dyeing... [Read More]

Charles Hamilton Smith's illustrations of soldiers of the British Army are a faithful and delightful record of how Wellington's troops were uniformed and equipped. Wellington's Army presents a collection of these sought after plates in a special, large format and provides a superb evocation of British military uniforms during the closing years of the Peninsular War and at the epic battle of Waterloo. The plates, drawn from life and completed in 1814, cover all the branches of service including l... [Read More]

Illustrates the lives of the North American Plains Indians through the colorful and functional clothing, furnishings, robes, blankets, and other everyday and ceremonial objects they made from deer and buffalo skins in the nineteenth century.

The manufacture of tapa cloth, made from the inner bark of certain trees, is one of the most intriguing products of the cultures of the Pacific islands. In several parts of Melanesia from New Guinea to Vanuatu, in Fiji, and on most of the high islands of Polynesia from Hawaii to Tahiti, the Marquesas, Tonga, Samoa, Niue, the Cook Islands, and New Zealand, making barkcloth is an ancient craft that has been practiced for thousands of years. Traditional Tapa Textiles of the Pacific presents a compl... [Read More]

The city of Palenque achieved its greatest splendour in the Late Classic when it became one of the foremost centres in the Maya world. During the reign of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal (A.D. 615–683) the Temple of the Inscriptions, which later served as his sepulchre and commemorative monument, was built. In 1952, Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovered the funerary chamber in the Temple of the Inscriptions. Based on the reports from the 1950s, photographs taken at the time of the discovery, work publish... [Read More]

This volume explores the production and use of Andean textiles from the weaver's perspective and follows recent intellectual developments on the productive chain of weaving.This book explores issues around the production of cloth in the Andean region and its use in Andean societies. Where possible, the book focuses on Andean textiles from a weaver's point of view, through the various tasks and processes in their making, and the manifold ways in which the ideas about a finished textile product re... [Read More]

Portable and practical, tough and colourful, Bedouin textiles played until recent times a vital and functional part in the life of the Arab nomads. Bedouin women were expected to master the art of making entire tents as well as a wide range of rugs, saddlebags and other equipment able to withstand the rigours of the desert. They took a fierce pride in their work and produced, on the simplest ground looms, textiles that were at once hard-wearing and of vibrant aesthetic appeal. The true craftspeo... [Read More]