CHINA: ITS COSTUME, ARTS, MANUFACTURES, &c. Edited principally from the originals in the cabinet of the late M. Bertin; with observations, explanatory, historical, and literary. Translated from the French. by BRETON, de la Martiniere ( Jean-Baptiste Joseph ).:

London, Howlett & Brimmer, 1824.. FOUR VOLUMES BOUND IN TWO, complete set 1824, (first published in 1812), small 8vo, approximately 155 x 100 mm, 6 x 3½ inches, 79 of 80 hand coloured plates, VOLUME 1 LACKS FRONTISPIECE, a yellowish facsimile inserted (see image), EX LIBRARY SET, ink library stamps to title page and following page of Volume1 and to blank side of title page of Volume 3 and lower margin of penultimate leaf of Volume 4. Pages: [6], [5], 6-128; [2], [5] 6-124; [2], [5] 6-135; [2], [5] 6-160, lacks all half-titles, rebound in modern full calf, 2 morocco gilt lettered labels to spines, extra gilt decoration to spines, gilt decoration to edges of covers, marbled endpapers and cream free endpapers. Occasional small fox spot or pale stain, 2 ink stamps partially erased, a good complete set in attractive binding housed in brown cloth slipcase. The work is a translation of the French book published in 1811 with the title La Chine en Miniature. The plates cover many aspects of Chinese social and commercial life: many trades people are shown including vendors of books, china, toys and kites, manufacture of silk, paper, china, ink and rope, soldiers, mothers and children, the emperor, mandarins, tartars, jugglers, musicians and musical instruments, punishments of various kinds. The books were very popular by end of 1813, six English editions had been issued, only one year after the first edition. Cordier, Volume I, column 65; Lowendahl, Volume II, No. 842 (listing our edition); Travel in Aquatint and Lithography 1770-1860 from the Library of J. R. Abbey, Volume 2, 535; John Lust, Western Books on China Published up to 1850, page 284, No.1243; Rene Colas, Bibliographie Generale du Costume et de la Mode, Volume 1, No. 435; Hilaire and Meyer Hiler, Bibliography of Costume, page 113. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.