Paris, librairie polonaise ; Strasbourg, chez l’éditeur ; Leipzig, F. A. Brockhaus, 1841.
Large 4to of (4) ll., 126 pp., (2) music plates, (1) l. for placement of the engravings, 39 hand-colored and gummed lithographs. Some foxing. Red half morocco with corners, smooth decorated spine, marbled edges. Contemporary binding.
293 x 230 mm.
Original edition of this very rare collection illustrating the costume worn in different regions of Poland during the Romantic period.
Lipperheide 1391 ; Colas, 3115, who mistakenly notes 40 plates by counting as a plate the 2 music plates designated as such in the table of illustrations.
“The plates exist in black or colored. The work was published in 10 installments of 4 lithographs each and one and a half ff. of text at the price of 2 francs in black and 4 francs in color.” (Colas).
The illustration consists of 39 costume plates and genre scenes finely watercolor-painted and gummed at the time by J. Lewicki and A. Wittmann: mountaineers from the surroundings of Kolomya, peasants from the surroundings of Wilno, beggar from the surroundings of Kijow, peasant women from the surroundings of Jaroslaw… The illustrations show popular scenes from Poland and from regions currently located in Belarus, Lithuania, and Ukraine. The last six plates show military costumes.
The plates are captioned in French, Polish, and English.
Each plate lithographed by Simon in Strasbourg, after the drawings of J. Lewicki and A. Wittmann, is captioned in French, German, and English.
Precious costume collection of great rarity, preserved in its contemporary half red morocco binding.
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