La Belle Assemblée

There were many competing fashion magazines in Ackermann's day, although none approached the quality of Ackermann's fine fashion plates. It is easy to see how some of them attempted to copy the images, but the result was always crude and poorly colored. La Belle Assemblée was owned by John Bell, a mover and shaker in the publishing industry. The magazine ran from 1806-1839. Early fashion prints were quite amateurish, but improved as time (and technology) advanced. Early in its run, La Belle Assemblée focused on informative and literary articles for women, as was the trend in the Enlightenment era, but by the 1820s, the so-called Romantic movement had shifted the role of women to more domestic and fashion topics.

The Problem With Prints

I spend too much time on the web, browsing for old prints and trying to clean them up digitally. Old paper, even the much superior paper of yesteryear, decays and discolors, and the inks run. I've tried to fix up several lovely old pictures that are marred by the printing from the back of the page, and it's pretty hopeless. Poor Dolly has the same problem with one of her new dresses. I hope she got it on a clearance sale!