The costume of China, illustrated by sixty engravings: with explanations in English and French. Costumes de la Chine, représentés en soixante gravures : avec des explications en anglais et en français.

Folio: [7 (of 8)] ff.; 60 pl. (one table of contents missing, uniformly sl. toned, some soiling and sl. browning, bookblock broken in the middle of the vol., a good inside copy otherwise).

Contemp. sheep, covers decorated with gilt frames of fillets and roll-stamps, and fleurons in the corners, gilt-orn. spine with raised bands, gilt chiselled edges (joints, head and 3 corners repaired, long split on spine, rubbed).

First edition of this luxurious work. Complete with 60 large water-coloured lithographs by J. Dadley after the drawings of the Cantonese Pu-Qua, each plate facing a bilingual leaf of explanation. A larger part of these "costumes" represents workers & craftmen e.g. the tea sorter, the bookseller, the blacksmith, the frog catcher, the basket maker, the fisherman, the embroiderer... The upperclass is less frequently represented. The work is a part of 11 books concerning "The costumes of various countries" published by Miller and later distributed by Mac Lean, comprising a.o. "Costumes" of Turkey (by d'Alvemart), Russia, Italy, Great Britain (by Pyne), Rio de Janeiro (by Chamberlain), etc.
Bound with: [Id.] - The punishments of China, illustrated by twenty-two engravings: with explanations in English and French. Les punitions des Chinois, représentés en vingt-deux gravures : avec des explications en anglais et en français. Id., for Miller by W. Bulmer and Co, 1801. First edition, complete with the 22 water-coloured stipple engravings by Dadley representing corporal punishments (twisting a man's ear, torturing the finger, burning a man's eyes with lime, punishment of the wooden collard, beheading, etc.).
Ref. Colas 2009 & 2010. - Cordier, Sinica, 1858 & 549. - Lipperheide 1520 & cp. 1522 (1808 ed.). - Cp. Abbey 533 & 532 (1804 ed.).
Prov. Charles Hurt (armorial bookpl.).