2 vols, Pickering, London, 1843. First edn complete with 94 engraved plates mainly in full colour & gilt, wood engraved initials and text illustrations also in colour. Small folio, unpaginated, original cloth gilt, neatly recased with spines laid down. Bkplt, some light foxing not usually on plates, VG attractive set. Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages is considered to be Henry Shaw's most ambitious work on the decorative arts of the medieval period. Described by Ruari McLean, in his ‘Victorian Book Design and Colour Printing’, as "a magnificent production. It has a considerable claim to be called the most handsome book produced in the whole of the nineteenth century." McLean p66.