Details
A Set of Hobsons Pattern Books
A set of eleven massive cloth-bound volumes of HOBSON & SONS, Military, Court & Civil Tailors, GOLD & SILVER LACEMEN & EMBROIDERERS, 1,3 & 5 LEXINGTON STREET, GOLDEN SQUARE LONDON, W., (18in x 12in), the majority of approximately 200 pages each, containing an important archive of embroiderers' and suppliers' patterns, records, orders and accounts dating from circa 1895 to circa 1955, providing detailed information on the uniforms (and particularly the insignia) of an immense assortment of military units and civilian organisations. A random sample of entries for British Military units includes items on the clothing of the Royal Horse Guards, Foot Guards, Honourable Artillery Company, Oxfordshire Yeomanry, Leicestershire Yeomanry, the 18th Londons (London Irish Rifles) and Special Air Service, as well as specifications for Lancers' chapkas produced by the Clothing Factory at Pimlico. The many Indian Army entries include the Governor's Bodyguard, Bombay, 2nd Bengal Lancers, 3rd Bengal Cavalry, 28th Bombay Pioneers and ADC to the Viceroy, while Indian Auxiliary forces include the Bikanir Camel Corps, the Allahabad Light Horse, the Dehra Dun Mounted Rifles and South Indian Railway Volunteers. There is massive coverage of Dominions and Colonial troops, including the Canadian Governor-General's Horse Guards and Foot Guards, the Cavalry School, Canada, Royal Canadian Engineers and RCAF, the Royal Natal Carabineers, Cape Mounted Rifles, the Kaffrarian Rifles, New South Wales Lancers, and St Kitts Defence Force, and of Police forces, mainly Colonial but including the Dockyard Police and Royal Irish Constabaulary 1895 as well as the Seychelles Police, Gold Coast Constabulary 1895 and Antigua Lunatic Asylum etc; there are references to a number of foreign military and civil organisations, including the Russian Imperial Guard and many diplomatic/consular umiforms. Civil entries include notes on uniforms of numerous colonial government colleges as well as British school OTCs etc. Two volumes deal extensively with badges and insignia of civil organisations of every description, from Tram Companies to cricket clubs, from laundries to the British Union of Fascists, and from Welfare Associations to the Eccentrics Club. One volume is devoted to orders taken and related accounts. Records are variously provided in the form of notes, sketches and jottings, detailed descriptions and drawings, rubbings and actual samples of embroidered badges, lace patterns and cloth. The total amount of information available in these volumes is very large, much of it of potential importance in the study of badges (11)
