This reading list is an ad hoc personal selection and appreciation of the reference books that I have discovered and which I enjoy dipping into on a regular basis. It is not intended to be a scholarly nor indeed comprehensive bibliography of the literature. Some of the titles listed are out of print and may be difficult to find but a search service is available upon request.

Silhouettes

British Silhouette Artists and their Work 1760-1860 / Sue McKechnie. Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1978.

If you only buy one reference book about silhouettes, make sure it's this one! With over 800 pages and 1,600 images, this is the most comprehensive and detailed guide to silhouettes available.

This book is out of print but second-hand copies do turn up. Expect to pay about £100 bearing in mind too that it's a heavy book to post. I sometimes have a spare copy available so contact me if you've had no success finding an affordable copy.

• Ancestors in Silhouette Cut by August Edouart / Mrs F. Nevill Jackson. John Lane, 1921.
  
• The History of Silhouettes / E. Nevill Jackson. The Connoisseur, 1911.
• Jacob Spornberg: Eighteenth Century Artist from Finland / Sue McKechnie. Tabard, 1971.
  
• A Master of Silhouette: John Miers Portrait Artist, 1757-1821 / Leonard Morgan May. Martin Secker, 1938.
  
• Mrs Delany: Her Life and Her Flowers / Ruth Hayden. Colonnade, 1980.
  
• One Hundred Silhouette Portraits Selected from the Collection of Francis Wellesley. Horace Hart, 1912.
• Shades of our Ancestors: American Profiles and Profilists / Alice van Leer Carrick. Little, Brown, 1928.
  
• Silhouette: Notes and Dictionary / Mrs E. Nevill Jackson. Methuen, 1938.

Portrait Miniatures

Miniatures: Dictionary and Guide / Daphne Foskett. Antique Collectors' Club, 1987.

There are many books devoted to portrait miniatures but if you only buy one book on the subject, then this is probably the one to choose. It's not as comprehensive in its field as Sue McKechnie's guide to silhouettes but, with 700 pages, it contains a wealth of information on the history of portrait miniatures and the techniques used together with potted biographies of hundreds of artists.

The book has been reprinted several times sometimes with a re-designed jacket.

• Andrew & Nathaniel Plimer, Miniature Painters: their Lives and their Works / George C. Williamson. George Bell, 1903.
• George Engleheart 1750-1829: Miniature Painter to George III / George C. Williamson & Henry L.D. Engleheart. George Bell, 1902.
• John Comerford and the Portrait Miniature in Ireland c.1620-1850 / Paul Caffrey. Kilkenny Archaeological Society, 1999.
• John Smart: the Man and his Miniatures / Daphne Foskett. Cory, Adams & Mackay, 1964.
• Love and Loss: American Portrait and Mourning Miniatures / Robin Jaffee Frank. Yale University Press, 2000.
• Miniatures at Kenwood: the Draper Gift. English Heritage, 1997.
• Miniatures in the XVIIIth & XIXth Centuries: an Historical and Descriptive Record / Donough O'Brien. Batsford, 1951.
• The Portrait Miniature in England / Katherine Coombs. V&A Publications, 1998.
• Portrait Miniatures in Enamel: the Gilbert Collection / Sarah coffin and Bodo Hofstetter. Philip Wilson, 2000.
• Raeburn's Rival: Archibald Skirving 1749-1819 / Stephen Lloyd. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1999.
  
• Richard & Maria Cosway: Regency Artists of Taste and Fashion / Stephen Lloyd. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1995.
• Samuel Cooper 1609-1672 / Daphne Foskett. Faber and Faber, 1974.
• Secret Passion to Noble Fashion: the World of the Portrait Miniature / Ann Summer & Richard Walker. Holburne Museum of Art, 1999.
  
• Treasures to Hold: Irish and English Miniatures 1650-1850 / Paul Caffrey. National Gallery of Ireland, 2000.

Portraiture

The Swagger Portrait: Grand Manner Portraiture in Britain from Van Dyck to Augustus John 1630-1930 / Andrew Wilton. Tate Gallery, 1992.

The title says it all really! Published to accompany an exhibition, this is lavishly illustrated with full-length formal portraits by all the major portrait artists arranged chronologically. The attractive cover portrait is of Mrs St George, an American heiress who married an Irish land agent against her father's wishes. She had an affair with the artist of her portrait, Sir William Orpen, that was to last over a decade.

• The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920 / Brian Stewart & Mervyn Cutten. Antique Collectors' Club, 1997.
• The Face in the Corner: Animals in Portraits from the Collections of the National Portrait Gallery / Robin Gibson. The NPG, 1998.

Provincial Art

Two Hundred Years of English Naive Art 1700-1900 / James Ayres. Art Services International Alexandria, 1996.

The illustrations make this book; there are sections on naive portraiture, rural life, town life, sports, animal portraiture, and mariners' art. This was produced to accompany an exhibition and is a revamped version of an earlier book by the same author: English Naive Painting 1750-1900 published by Thames and Hudson in 1980. The earlier publication has additional illustrations but is not as colourful.

• The Age of the Journeyman in English Painting and Pottery: Exhibition of Paintings & Pottery. Rutland Gallery, 1969.
• Farm Animal Portraits / Elspeth Moncrieff with Stephen and Iona Joseph. Antique Collectors' Club, 1996.
• Folk Art / Robert Young with Frankie Leibe. Mitchell Beazley, 1999.
  
• Jack Tar, a Sailor's Life 1750-1910: Marine Art & Antiques / J. Welles Henderson & Rodney P. Carlisle. Antique Collectors' Club, 1999.
• 'A Noble Art': Amateur Artists and Drawing Masters c.1600-1800 / Kim Sloan. British Museum Press, 2000.
• Professor of Peculiar Art: a brief account of George Smart Tailor of Frant / 1987.

History of Fashion

Barbara Johnson's Album of Fashions and Fabrics / edited by Natalie Rothstein. Thames and Hudson, 1987.

Between 1746 and 1823, this fashion-conscious lady kept a swatch of fabric from every garment she had made and pinned it into her album noting how much it cost and what it was used for. Alongside she pasted in the fashion plates from the ladies' magazines which inspired her wardrobe. The pages from her album are reproduced in full-size and in colour; the fabrics are so vivid you imagine you should be able to feel their texture.

This book is out of print and can be pricey but for anyone interested in 18th century costume it's well worth the investment.

• Dame Fashion: Paris-London 1786-1912 / Julius M. Price. Sampson Low, Marston, 1913.
  
• Jane Austen Fashion: Fashion and Needlework in the Works of Jane Austen / Penelope Bryde. Excellent Press, 1999.

Lucky Dip

Mrs Hurst Dancing and Other Scenes from Regency Life 1812-1823 / watercolours by Diana Sperling; text by Gordon Mingay. Gollancz, 1981.

Diana Sperling's collection of paintings reproduced in this book are absolutely charming and give an original insight into the everyday life and pursuits of Diana and her friends from breaking in the donkeys to papering the salon. My favourite is "Mrs Sperling murdering flies - assisted by her maid who received the dead and wounded". For once, this one won't break the bank!

• The Big House in Ireland / Valerie Pakenham. Cassell, 2000.
  
• The Grand Century of the Lady / Arthur Calder-Marshall. Gordon & Cremonesi, 1976.
  
• Home and Garden: Paintings and Drawings of English, Middle-class, Urban Domestic Spaces 1675 to 1914. Geffrye Museum, 2003.
  
• A Picture History of the Grenville Family of Rosedale House / Mary Yelloly, eight and a half years old. Rizzoli, 2007.
  
• The World of Mary Ellen Best / Caroline Davidson. Chatto & Windus, 1985.

Related Online Articles

• Treasuring the Gaze: eye miniature portraits and the intimacy of vision by Hanneke Grootenboer
• "Surrounded with Brilliants": miniature portraits in eighteenth-century England by Marcia Pointon
• Louie Burrell: a portrait in miniature by Arwen Tapping
• Object Lessons: miniature worlds by Catherine Kelly
• Shades and Shadow-Pictures: the materials and techniques of American portrait silhouettes by Penley Knipe