David Mason Fine and Rare Books

(William ALEXANDER).
THE COSTUME OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE, Illustrated by a Series of Seventy-Three Engravings.

London: Printed for W. Miller, 1803. First edition. Folio, full contemporary calf, recently rebacked with a calf spine after the period, leather spine label, unpaginated. With 73 hand-coloured engravings and 73 pages of descriptive text which is printed in English on the recto and French on the verso. This copy has been professionally rebacked with a new calf spine after the period and a new leather label, some light rubbing to the boards and a bit of wear to the corners but certainly a very good copy with stunning hand-coloured plates. Abbey I:244.

'The fourth in a series of costume books issued by William Miller. The complete list, with published prices and references to others of the series in this collection, will be found in the Notes to the earliest book, Mason's The Costume of China, 1800 ... where the origin and subsequent series as a whole is also discussed. The Plates for this book are closely copied, but somewhat enlarged from a book by J.G. Georgi published by Carl Wilhelm Muller in St. Petersburg ... The text of this English edition is said to be by William Alexander.' (Abbey) Abbey provides complete details of the later printings and publishers of this work.