Dalvimart | The Costume of Turkey, 1804

GREECE AND THE LEVANT, A PRIVATE LIBRARY, LOTS 157-213

[DALVIMART, OCTAVIEN]

The Costume of Turkey. London: printed by William Miller...for William Bulmer, 1804 [plates watermarked 1819]

Folio (355 x 255mm.), text in English and French, English title with hand-coloured vignette, 60 hand-coloured aquatint plates, ALL WITH ELABORATE WATERCOLOUR BACKGROUNDS framed in double rules, contemporary blue straight-grained morocco gilt, gilt edges, faint offsetting of plates onto text, slightly scuffed

A good copy of the most desirable version of this work with watercolour backgrounds. Besides Turks, the plates depict many of the inhabitants of the Ottoman empire, including Greeks, Albanians, Bedouins, Syrians, and Armenians. By way of comparison with ordinary copies see Atabey bibliography, vol.1, pp.164-165 and 168, where both versions are illustrated. 

LITERATURE:

cf. Atabey 314, Blackmer 444 and Abbey, Travel, 370

PROVENANCE:

Louisa Becker Oct 11th 1827, inscription; Frances M. Myers, bookplate