HENRICY (Casimir). The Customs and Costumes of All Peoples, Based on the Most Authentic Documents, the Most Recent Travels, and Unpublished Materials. Paris: Librairie Ethnographique, 1847. — 2 volumes in one large 8vo volume, 259 x 164: (2 ff.), 384 pp., (2 ff.), 35 plates; (2 ff.), 112 pp., (2 ff.), 20 plates. Red half-shagreen with corner pieces, gilt fillets, decorated faux-ribbed spine, marbled edges (contemporary binding). Colas, 1427. First edition written by Casimir Henricy (1814–1900) and published under the direction of geographer Frédéric Lacroix (18–1864). This volume comprises the first two parts—the only ones ever published—of an ambitious history of the customs and traditions of all the peoples of the world. They deal exclusively with Africa and Oceania and are illustrated with a total of 55 color plates and 134 woodcuts in the text. The preface, marked by strikingly harsh language, reveals a mindset deeply influenced by 19th-century scientific racism and Eurocentrism: “Africa and Oceania open this panorama of the customs and traditional dress of all the peoples of the world. It is not without reason that the author begins in this way. These two parts of the world are home to the most backward populations and those lowest on the ladder of human creation. The inhabitant of Van Diemen’s Land, with his spindly and feeble limbs, with his hideous features that make him resemble an ape; the Negro, with his woolly hair, flat nose, thick and protruding lips, and low forehead, represent the most disgraced races of nature, the most poorly endowed, both morally and physically. It seems that these two types were, in the hands of the Creator, nothing more than experiments—shapeless drafts intended to serve as models for more perfect beings. Thus, civilization has forgotten these outcasts of our species. Devoid of initiative and creative genius, these disinherited peoples still languish in the barbarism of primitive times.” This excerpt illustrates a colonial mindset, in which white superiority is presented as a given, thereby legitimizing European domination over these regions. Scuffs, surface wear, and stains on the binding. Dulled corners; two missing sections on the back cover. Foxing and some browned pages. Provenance: Maurice Pereire, with bookplate.