Paris, librairie polonaise ; Strasbourg, chez l’éditeur ; Leipzig, F. A. Brockhaus, 1841.
Large 4to [289 x 225 mm] of (4) ll., 126 pp., (1) l. of engravings table, 39 watercolored lithographs, under silky papers, (2) music plates. Text ll. foxed, 12 first plates browned not affecting the colored illustration, tiny lack of paper in the blank margin page 123. Dark green quarter-shagreen, flat spine framed with a gilt fillet and decorated with gilt rocaille tools, gilt author and title, gilt fillet around the covers, gilt edges. Head and tail of spine rubbed. Contemporary binding.
First edition of this very rare album that shows the costume worn in various Polish regions during the Romantic period.
Lipperheide 1391 ; Colas, 3115, that mentions by mistake 40 plates counting as one plate the two music plates designated as so in the table of illustrations.
« The plates exist in black or colored. The work was published in 10 issues of 4 lithographs each and of one and a half text leaf for 2 francs in black and 4 francs in colors. » (Colas).
The illustration is composed of 39 plates of costumes and genre paintings finely watercolored and enhanced with gum at the time: mountain dwellers from Kolomya surroundings, peasants from Wilno surroundings, beggars from Kijow surroundings, peasant women from Jaroslaw surroundings…
Each plate lithographed by Simon in Strasburg, after J. Lewicki and A. Wittmann’s drawings, has a French, German and English caption.
Precious and extremely rare album of costumes, preserved in its contemporary green quarter-shagreen binding.
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