Moeurs, Usages et costumes de tous les peuples du monde

First edition of this vast illustrated undertaking, published in Brussels by the Librairie historique-artistique in 1843-1844, in four octavo volumes. The present copy contains 210 costume plates, hand-coloured and heightened with gum, together with four coloured title vignettes. The number of plates varies considerably from copy to copy; with its 210 plates, all retaining their tissue guards, this is one of the more extensively illustrated examples.

Contemporary half dark blue morocco. Spines with false bands, the compartments decorated with alternating broad and fine rules. Dark blue grained-paper boards. Some rubbing, particularly to the boards. The set remains generally fresh, with a few pale spots of foxing, chiefly to the opening leaves. All tissue guards are present, in good condition and free from foxing.

Both text and illustrations draw upon contemporary travel accounts and the geographical documentation then available, at a time when large compilations devoted to the peoples, dress and customs of the world were flourishing across Europe. The plates were engraved by Doms, Duverger, Lisbet, Markaert and others. Each volume combines descriptions, types, costumes and figure studies in an attempt to represent the known world as a whole.

This encyclopaedic ambition is particularly richly expressed here. From one volume to the next, costumes and figures follow one another without reducing the world to a single geography or tradition; instead, it is unfolded through series, regions and peoples, according to the categories and knowledge available in the mid-nineteenth century.

With its 210 hand-coloured plates, four title vignettes and complete set of tissue guards, this copy preserves the work in one of its most extensive forms: an entire world distributed across four volumes, patiently brought back to colour by hand.