WAHLEN, Auguste

Moeurs, Usages et Costumes de tous les peuples du monde...

> Klicken Sie hier, um das Bild in voller Größe zu betrachten.

Librairie Historique Brussels, 1844. Four volumes, large octavo, with a total of 213 finely handcoloured costume plates; contemporary green quarter roan. Scarce and beautiful work on the costumes of the world, finely illustrated with a wonderful series of highly coloured full-page plates. The fourth volume covers Oceania and includes the Aborigines of Jervis Bay and Kangaroo Island, and the exotic peoples of New Guinea, Timor, Java, New Zealand and Hawaii.

Of particular note is the portrait of a "Jeune fille de l'ile Pitcairn", pictured in a yellow skirt and vivid blue sash. Appended is a brief but very good note on the history of Pitcairn and the mutiny, which includes notice of the voyage of the Comet and the Lucy-Ann, which transported the entire population of the island to Tahiti.

There are also images familiar to us from published voyage accounts such as the Tahitian dancer after John Webber from the account of Cook's third voyage, and portrait profiles of Maoris based on Sydney Parkinson's images published in the official account of the first voyage.

As usual, the plates in the publication do not exactly correspond with the lists published within the work. The table of contents describes one hundred and eighty-five plates (actually one hundred and eighty-eight, but an erratum shows that only one hundred and eighty-five were issued) and subscribers could also order a series of twelve special supplementary plates - as here - making a total of one hundred and ninety-seven plates. This copy, however, has two hundred and thirteen plates. A full collation is available on request.
Ferguson, 'Addenda', 3760a, 3761-3.

• AUD 6,850.00 > Andere Währungen
• Bestellnummer: 802_509

• Antiquariat: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)