Yesterday's Children: The Antiques and History of Childcare [Hardcover]

Sally Keuill-Davies (Author), Sally Kevill-Davies (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1992

Examines everyday objects used by mothers and nurses to raise children, and explores changes in fashions and opinions from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century with regards to childcare.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This social history of the last 400 years of British and American childbirth and childcare practices presents a strange and sometimes grim picture of what should have been a time of innocence. The author, formerly of Sotheby's auction house, is herself the product of a rigid and properly British upbringing--although we can only hope that she was not bound to a board and hung on a wall, as 18th-century babies were. Many of the household and medical utensils illustrated, taken from collections as diverse as the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and numerous private collections, seem quaint or curious in the 1990s but were considered to be state of the art in centuries past. Because of the author's extensive coverage of nursery and playroom decoration, costumes, and christening and death rituals, this book would be invaluable to designers of theater sets and costumes. Antique collectors will appreciate the very good index. And all new parents and persons with vivid memories of their own childhood will be charmed by this account.
- Margarete Gross, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 316 pages
• Publisher: Antique Collectors' Club (December 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 185149135X
• ISBN-13: 978-1851491353
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,161,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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