Coutumes

1804 · E5UG7Z4OCT3N — Leipzig 1804. 16mo in 8s 14 x 10.5 cm. Friedrich August Leo Original publisher's paperboards printed from an engraved plate and hand-coloured each board with a costume scene in a decorated frame with caricature faces also with faces and decorations on the spine green paste-downs. With 2 stiff coated leaves at the end apparently intended for writing with a stylus. With 12 numbered engraved plates by Friedrich Wilhelm Nettling all coloured by a contemporary hand each showing several figures in carnival costumes. 31 1 blank pp. Very rare first and only published part of a series of hand-coloured carnival costume plates each of the 12 with a letterpress description in German and French. Only plates 9 and 10 bear the name of the German draughtsman and engraver Friedrich Wilhelm Nettling best known for his portrait of Bach but all may have been engraved by him. The mostly comical or farcical plates illustrate a fairy with her entourage a Chinese man Don Quixote and Sancho Panza a group of beast people and many other extraordinary figures. Two figures in one plate wear funnels as hats like the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. Besides the 12 plates in the booklet itself the engravings on the boards show two male figures gymnasts one in a clown-like costume on the front and a dancing woman with a tambourine on the back.With some minor stains and the front of the binding slightly damaged in the lower margin and lower right corner spine cracked. Good copy.l Baumgärtel Die Almanache Kalender und Taschenbücher 1750-1860 der Landesbibliothek Coburg p. 32; Köhring 111; WorldCat 633348944 465355875 3 copies; not in Colas; Hiler; Lanckoronska & Rümann; Lipperheide; for Nettling: Thieme & Becker XXV p. 400. ABE CAT Costumes & Uniforms hardcover