PBA Galleries

4 volumes xxxvi, 144; [iii], 172; [iii], 188; [iii], 220 pp. 80 copper-engraved plates. (12mo) period full calf, spines gilt, black morocco labels. First Edition. 

Two additional volumes, with 28 new plates, were issued in 1812. The images cover the whole range of Chinese society, but especially tradesmen. Particularly interesting are the numerous depictions of itinerant salesmen and craftsmen with ingenious methods of transporting their inventories and machinery. The industrious author produced similar tours of Russia, Egypt and Syria, Spain and Portugal, and Japan. This issue has the plates in black and white; it was also offered with the plates hand-colored. An edition of the first four volumes with the text in English was published in London in 1813. The present volumes contain 74 numbered plates, but unnumbered frontispieces and additional plates bring the total to 80. Brunet, I, 1225. Colas 443. Cordier 65. Hiler, p. 113. Lipperheide 1524. For the English edition, see: Abbey, Travel, 535.