Hordern House

ANONYMOUS Physionomies Nationales des Peuples... Paris, Delaunay, circa 1810

Duodecimo, 25 engraved plates (all but one handcoloured); an excellent copy in contemporary marbled boards, extremities slightly chipped.

First edition of this delightful French physiognomical study of the peoples of the world, which compares the facial structures and features of various European races with those of Asians, Africans, and the native inhabitants of many newly-discovered regions including Nootka Sound, Kamchatka, the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand and Australia.

The detailed text is illustrated with fine handcoloured engraved plates mainly derived from voyage accounts; for example, the portraits of natives of the Hawaiian Islands, Tanna and Nootka Sound are all based on images that appeared in the publications of Cook's voyages, while the image of an Australian Aborigine is based on the engraving after Nicolas Petit published in Péron's account of the Baudin expedition.

This is a rare work, known to Ferguson only from his own copy, noted in the Addenda, and not recorded by Forbes in the Hawaiian National Bibliography.
Ferguson, 505a; not in Forbes.

$A5850

This item is listed on Bibliopoly by Hordern House; click here for further details.