ALEXANDER, William

ALEXANDER, William. The costume of the Russian Empire, illustrated by a series of seventy-three engravings. With descriptions in English and French.

London, William Miller, 1803.

 

 

 

£ 2,500

 

Large 4to. (35 x 26.5 cm), title-page in French and English, pp. iii, iii, 73 hand-coloured aquatint plates with tissue paper guards and bilingual text. Generally very clean and crisp. Occasional light damp staining and browning. Later calf gilt with rhombus-grid pattern applied on covers, richly decorated contemporary spine gilt in six compartments and double raised bands. Some signs of skilful restoration. Bookplates of Baronet Sir William Jerningham, to front pastedown, and Charles Tennant, to front free endpaper. A fine copy.

 

One of a series of costume books published by Miller, another (for a copy of which, see above) covered the Austrian Empire, a third the Ottomans, and a fourth China. The work copies a series of plates made between 1776 and 1779 in St. Petersburg by C. W. Müller and dedicated to Catherine the Great.

 

Depicted here are, amongst others, traditional Finns, Laplanders, Estonians, Samoyeds, Mongols, Kirghis and Tartars.

 

Abbey Travel 245, Colas 702, Lipperheide 1341.