Welsh Costume: Cambrian Costumes, watercolour album
Title: ‘NATIONAL COSTUMES OF WALES’ (printed on paper and stuck to cover).
Inside cover small label: ‘Bound by E Rees and Son, Book sellers and C. Abergavenny’
This volume contains 16 watercolours of ‘girls’ in Welsh costume (page 12 has two girls, the rest have one). Most of the watercolours are numbered and titled and are said to be from Gwent (6), the Gower (3), Pembrokeshire (2) and Cardiganshire (2).
The use of the term Dull-Wisgoedd / Dull-Wisgad in the title is inconsistent: for example it appears in both forms on the watercolour for no. 4.
Fewer also have the title in English: ‘Cambrian costumes dedicated to the nobility and gentry of Wales’ or ‘of the Principality’ or Costumes of Wales dedicated …
There are three additional watercolour portraits of girls in costume without any title and two pencil drawings of young women wearing tall hats with narrow brims.
Most of these are on paper with roughly cut or torn edges which have ben stuck directly onto the pages of the album; one is stuck to another sheet of paper and one to a sheet of thin card, both of which are stuck to the album. Following these are four letterheads with different prints from the Series ‘Welsh Costumes’, nos. 2,4,6 and 8 published by Newman and Co. They are undated but others in the series are dated to the 1850s.
In addition there is one portrait of a girl in a splendid court dress (no 6), which is the only one that is signed by Augusta Hall (Lady Llanover) and dated 1838. It is entitled April 1749 and is similar to illustrations for the rest of the first six months of the year which are elsewhere in the Llanover collection.
Artist: One of the numbered series is signed ‘A. Cadwalader’ where the second l might have merged with the a; two are signed ‘A Cadwallader’ and one ‘A. Cadwalader’ suggesting that they were signed by someone who was not familiar with signing his or her name. The remainder are unsigned (except for the one signed by Augusta Hall).
Date: The title page has on its reverse a printed programme of a concert dated 1843, and the inclusion of the Newman prints which date to the 1850s suggest that the album was compiled during or after the 1850s, but the prints which were based on the 13 numbered watercolours probably date to 1834 or 1834, suggesting that the watercolours date to 1834 or earlier.
Size of volume: 36.5 x 24.5 cms
Location: National Library of Wales DV299 (NLW PA 8137)
