Rare Book Collection

The Sydney Technical College Department of Art in the old Darlinghurst Gaol ran TAFE NSW Arts courses up to 2005 when the courses were moved to Ultimo. Since then a small number of antique books, slides, and other aged collections have been digitised. In this collection damage such as speckling has been removed from the digital image, and for each page scanned, the image on the page, rather than the page itself, is presented to the viewer. Text has been scanned as text rather than kept as an image of text.
The American Soldier by H. Charles McBarron Uniforms from 1781 - 1963
Art Knits - Contemporary Knitwear By Australian Designers by Jane de Teliga ART KNITS is an exhibition by Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1988-1989. It features top Australian Designers of the time.
British Military Uniforms 24 images portraying uniforms from 1770 to 1895. The illustrations however are much later than this (mid 20th Century).
Chinese Brocade Patterns Brocades are richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics. The brocades all date from the Ming Dynasty (15 century China).
Fashion Plates - Australian Women's Weekly and Ladies Home Journal, c1924-1955 25 fashion illustration pages selected.
Fire Places 7 illustration pages.
Garden Flowers by Jane Loudon 16 plates from the early Victorian artist Jane Wells Webb Loudon.
Galerie des Modes 1778-1787 24 high resolution illustrations showing French fashion in the last hedonistic years of Louis XVI. For a comparison with Napoleonic and post Napoleonic styles, see 'Incredible and Marvelous Paris, 1810-1818'.
Incroyables et Merveilleuses Paris 1810-1818 by Horace Vernet 24 high quality images showing French style during the Napleonic Empire.
Japanese Textiles Woven and Embroidered Japanese rugs and wall hangings. High images in pdf format.
La Mode This set of plates come from a French fashion publication of the middle decades of the 19th century. The plates show details, color and shape of contemporary dress. Almost the entire collection consists of ladies formal wear.
Les Heures de la Parisienne 1840 18 high quality images from a French publication showing high fashion in Paris after Napoleon.
Mid Victorian Costume, 1860-1880 Although the crinoline continued to dominate, its shape altered during this period into a more oval configuration. The front and sides were flattened but the fulness was emphasised at the back. This gradually developed into the bustle which reached its fullest extent by about 1875, after which it gradually diminished until at the end of the period it disappeared altogether showing the true line of the hips once more.
The illustration of advertising by Alex Jardine, W (illustrator) 40 plates. Walter Jardine was a Sydney based poster advertising artist from the mid 20th century.
National Costumes: Austria - Hungary - Poland - Czecho-slovakia 40 plates showing everyday dress in 19th century central Europe. The dress is illustrated as blocks of flat color so the images are very clear.
Paris Miroir de la Mode 1855-1867 18 images of dress in France of the 2nd Empire. Plates are scanned at very high resolution.
Pennsylvania German Designs From the introduction: THE value of early Pennsylvania German design is its honesty as folk art. It is bold and direct. There are no extra ornamental flourishes to confuse the essential form. In almost every instance the pattern fits the object; the relationship is never forced but is one of naturalness. They are very hand crafted.
Pourponts et Vertugadins Dress from 1515 - 1643 - The publication and prints are from a French series called "Costumes and Modes of the Past". The publication was printed in Paris possibly around 1870. This is the sixth album.
Roses by Eric Bois And Anne-Marie Trechslin 60 plates.
Traditional National Costumes This is Costume book 1 of the 'Histrionic Club' signed by Alexandre Lacauchie, a prominent lithographer of early 19th century Paris. It should be noted that the illustrator is portraying an idea of what foreigners wear (costume), rather than being an actual representation.