Published by E. Maaskamp, Amsterdam, 1811
Seller: White Fox Rare Books and Antiques, ABAA/ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Half Morocco, Cloth boards. Condition: Very Good. Large 4to. 30 by 25 cm. With 21 hand-colored plates including allegorical frontis plate watermarked 1811 with the names of Maaskamp and Colnaghi & Co. of London. (The title gives publication date of 1808, as is also embossed in gilt on spine foot, but given watermarking, this copy should be viewed as the second edition (the first was issued in 1803) and the first edition issued in English.) Plates engraved by Portman after paintings of J. Kuyper. Colas 1681. Hiler 557. The plates stand out among so many others of the same era for their depiction of people doing things. These are truly genre scenes, as opposed to static costume poses, and they thus deliver visual information about aspects of the livelihood,custom and culture of the Dutch. Foxing of preliminaries and final leaves, with some scattered foxing elsewhere, affecting mostly text pages. Most of the plates are clean or have the lightest of marginal foxing. Joints rubbed.
Published by Chez E. Maaskamp, Amsterdam, 1811
Seller: White Fox Rare Books and Antiques, ABAA/ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Full Calf. Condition: Near Fine. Second Edition. With 21 hand-colored plates watermarked from 1803 and 1811 (mostly the latter) with the names of Maaskamp and Colnaghi & Co. of London. Plates engraved by Portman after paintings of J. Kuyper. Colas 1681. Hiler 557. The plates stand out among so many others of the same era for their depiction of people doing things. These are truly genre scenes, as opposed to static costume poses, and they thus deliver visual information about aspects of the livelihood,custom and culture of the Dutch, as intended by the book's title, which translates as "Representations of the Costume, Morals and Customs of Holland in the Early 19th Century". While there is some scattered light foxing in the book, the plates themselves are for the most part exceptionally bright and clean. A few leaves have a tight crease now flattened -- the one plate that this affects it does so de minimus-ly and is scarcely worth comment. The full calf has shelfwear evident in the corners and some other scuff marks, with a small strip of surface leather lifted on the rear board. The front gutter shows past separation which now remedied but the crack visually remains apparent the whole way down, with some spots of raw leather showing along this line. Nonetheless the leather remains quite attractive and the defect remaining worth tolerating. But for this flaw the book might be described as fine.