Harding, J.W., ‘Six designs in north Wales’, 1810

Description

J.W. Harding of St James St. [London] published ‘Six designs in north Wales’, in 1810 and 1812.
The prints were accompanied by page-long, rather critical comments about Welsh life.
1 Coracle fishing
2 Peat Cutting
3 The Blind Harpist
4 Ferry at Conway
5 Welch Farmer / Hay Making
6 Washday
All the women in these illustrations are shown wearing loose voluminous V- or round-necked bedgowns like some of the women’s costumes shown in prints published by Peter Roberts in his ‘The Cambrian Popular Antiquities of Wales’ (1815) in which the costumes are nothing like any other illustrations and might have been based on an imaginary idea of what costumes were like in mediaeval times.
The prints were possibly designed to be mounted on board with a descriptive text on the reverse (there are four of these thus mounted in the National Museum of Wales).

• https://welshhat.wordpress.com/images/drawings-and-paintings/harding-j-w/ (link opens in new window)