Batterberry, Michael & Ariane
MIRROR, MIRROR: A Social History of Fashion
NY: Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1977

First printing. 400 pp; illustrated throughout in color and b/w; bibliography; index. Cloth in unclipped dustjacket. Near fine in VG+ jacket. Dustjacket has light edgewear/shelfwear and a small closed tear at crown. A beautiful first printing.
Inventory number #011781

Core, Philip
THE ORIGINAL EYE: Arbiters of Twentieth-Century Taste
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1984

First edition. Quarto. 189 pp; nearly 200 b/w illustrations; bibliography; index. Black cloth with silver-titled spine in dustjacket. Near fine/VG, mild yellowing to jacket edges. The ten personalities in this book are the arbiters who have exercised their original eye in the hundred years since the impersonal eye of the camera began to document shifts in taste. They are: Robert de Montesquiou, Sergei Diaghilev, Elsie de Wolfe, Alfred Stieglitz, Filippo Marinetti, Cecil Beaton, Marie-Laure de Noailles, Peggy Guggenheim, Andy Warhol, and Malcolm McLaren.
Inventory number #011739

Salewicz, Chris & Adrian Boot
FIREFLY: Noel Coward in Jamaica
London: Victor Gollancz, 1999

First printing. Octavo. 127 pp; many color & b/w photographs, paintings and drawings from Coward's private albums, many previously unpublished. Cloth with dustjacket. Fine/Fine, a crisp, unmarked copy; unclipped jacket with no wear. Noel Coward made a home for himself on Jamaica, named Firefly, where he would paint, write and relax with his closest friends and companions, including Audrey Hepburn, Gladys Cooper, Alec Guinness, Charlie Chaplin, Peter Sellers, Peter O'Toole, and Maggie Smith.
Inventory number #011302

Dorsey, Leslie & Janice Devine
FARE THEE WELL: A Backward Look at Two Centuries of Historic American Hostelries, Fashionable Spas & Seaside Resorts
NY: Crown Publishers, 1964

Quarto. 328 pp; profusely illustrated; index. Cloth with dustjacket. Fine/Near Fine, a clean, unmarked copy; price-clipped jacket has light wear at top of spine and corners.
Inventory number #010967

Pakenham, Simona
IN THE ABSENCE OF THE EMPEROR: London-Paris 1814-15
London: Cresset Press, 1968

Octavo. 192 pp; b/w illustrations. Original blue cloth with gilt-lettered spine with dustjacket. Near Fine/Near Fine
Inventory number #010695

Josephson, Barney with Terry Trilling-Josephson
CAFE SOCIETY: The Wrong Place for the Right People
Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009

First printing. Octavo. 376 pp; 75 b/w photographs; index. Cloth with gilt-lettered spine with dustjacket. A new, unused copy. The story of the night club impresario whose wildly successful interracial club, Cafe Society, changed the American artistic landscape forever. Barney Josephson was proprietor of the legendary interracial New York City night clubs Cafe Society Downtown and Cafe Society Uptown and their successor, The Cookery. The clubs featured the cream of jazz and blues performers - among whom were Billie Holiday, Big Joe Turner, Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Big Sid Catlett, and Mary Lou Williams - as well as comedy stars Imogene Coca, Zero Mostel, and Jack Gilford, boogie-woogie pianists, and legendary gospel and folk artists.
Inventory number #010077

Langner, Lawrence
THE IMPORTANCE OF WEARING CLOTHES
London: Constable, 1959

Octavo. 349 pp; over 300 b/w illustrations; bibliography; index. Dark blue cloth with gilt-lettered spine in dustjacket. VG/Good, This is the classic history of clothing that inspired the bold, young designers of the 1960s to create the controversial styles of the period, including the mini-skirt, the topless bathing suit, & the unisex look. It is essential reading for social scientists, historians, students, artists, librarians & all those who cover & adorn their bodies.
Inventory number #007436

Baird, Rosemary
MISTRESS OF THE HOUSE: Great Ladies and Grand Houses 1670-1830
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003

First edition. Octavo. xvi, 320 pp; numerous color & b/w illustrations; notes; bibliography; index. Green cloth with dustjacket. VG/VG, ex-library copy - the only marking is small label on copyright page. Looks unread. A fascinating social history of the wealthy British women who became Mistress of the House.
Inventory number #006647

Murray, Venetia
AN ELEGANT MADNESS: High Society in Regency England
NY: Viking, 1999

First American edition. Octavo. xvii, 316 pp; 28 b/w plates + b/w drawings in the text; bibliography; index. Cloth-backed boards with dustjacket. Near Fine/Near Fine. A social history of the Regency, an era of lavish parties, ferocious gossip, relentless bed hopping, and notorious gambling that set a new standard for elegance and vulgarity.
Inventory number #005845

Laver, James
VICTORIAN VISTA
London: Hulton Press, 1954

First English edition. Octavo, 256 pp. Cloth in unclipped dj. VG/VG- minor tanning to spine. Very nice copy.
Inventory number #003656

Halle, David
INSIDE CULTURE: Art and Class in the American Home
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993

Octavo. 261 pp; 91 b/w illustrations; appendix; notes; index. Cloth with dj. Fine/Near fine. A fascinating account of the uses and meaning of art for those who buy it and live it. This study ranges from Manhattan's Upper East Side to blue-collar Brooklyn to middle- and upper-middle-class suburbs on Long Island.
Inventory number #003074