Java. Tooneelen uit het leven. Karakterschetsen en kleederdragten van Java's bewoners. Voorwoord van H.M. Lange.

Leyden, A.W. Sythoff, 1855. 8vo. Original green embossed cloth, spine and front board gilt with floral patterns and ethnographical vignettes (sl. soiled). With engraved vignette on title-page, folding coloured map and 26 superb hand-coloured lithographed costume plates, finished with gum arabic, after E. Hardouin by Lemercier, with the address of K. Fuhri in The Hague, and 25 woodcut letter-illuminations. XVIII,242 pp. First edition, second issue. The first issue was published in the same year by K. Fuhri. - In 1855 Fuhri had complete copies of the work bound up. Judging by their rarity it is likely that these were mainly subscribers' copies. The Sythoff edition is also very scarce, and it cannot be supposed that many copies were published. Ernest Hardouin (1820-1854) came to Jakarta in 1842 as a stage designer with a French theatrical group. When the group dissolved he stayed and went travelling through West Java He made many water-colours and pencil drawings during his stay. These drawings were reproduced in the book: Java, scenes taken from life, character sketches and costumes of the inhabitants of Java. It is one of the most delightful 19th century colour plate books on Indonesia, depicting the life of the Asian community, especially in the urban regions of Java. Wilhelm Leonard Ritter (1799-1862) was one of the most popular nineteenth century writters on Indonesia.The elaborate cloth binding is one of the most ornate trade bindings of any book on Indonesia (Bastin-Brommer p.30-34). - Some marginal foxing, otherwise a fine copy. Bastin-Brommer N 519; Landwehr, Coloured Plates, 301; Haks & Maris p.11; Colas 1378; Lipperheide 1507; Tiele 452.…