A. Wahlen - Moeurs, Usages et Costumes de tous les Peuples du Monde - 1843-1844

Manners, Customs, and Costumes of all the Peoples of the World according to authentic documents and the most recent travels; published by Auguste Wahlen, knight of several orders - Complete 4 large volumes in octavo (18.5 x 26.5 cm) - Brussels, at the Historical-Artistic Bookshop 1843-1844 -
This work of great erudition describes the habits, laws, religions, social regimes and clothing of each population. It is famous for its numerous plates engraved and lithographed in colours. It reflects the encyclopedic, exotic and sometimes stereotyped or paternalistic vision of ethnography and anthropology in the 19th century - The text and the iconography derive their sources from travel narratives and geographic documents at a moment when some works published in Europe focus on anthropology and ethnology - Very good condition -
Period bindings half brown morocco, spine with false nerves ornamented with compartments of gilded fillets alternating with cold fillets, marbled boards, well complete with the number of plates advertised in Colas’s bibliography. Works illustrated with 188 plates hors-texte, serpentes, of costumes engraved or drawn by Pannemaker, Doms, Duverger, Lisbet, Mercier, Morcken, etc., hand-watercoloured and gommed -
- Asia: 592 pages and 79 Plates / Africa - America: 365 pages - 19 Plates for Africa and 22 Plates for America / Oceania: 368 pages and 34 Plates / Europe: 361 pages and 34 Plates -