WAHLEN (Auguste). - Lot 99

WAHLEN (Auguste). Customs, Traditions, and Costumes of All the Peoples of the World, Based on Authentic Documents and the Most Recent Travels. Brussels: La Librairie Historique-artistique, 1843–1844. — 4 in-8 volumes, 267 x 176: frontispiece, (2 ff.), 82 plates (Asia); (2 ff.), 368 pp., 36 plates (Oceania); (2 ff.), 365 pp., (1 f.), 43 plates (Africa—the Americas); (2 ff.), 361 pp., (1 f.), 48 plates (out of 49) (Europe). Black half-shagreen with corner pieces, thick gilt fillets, smooth gilt spine, gilt head, untrimmed (contemporary binding). Colas, 3041. First edition published by Auguste Wahlen (1785–1850), a pseudonym for Jean-François Loumyer, illustrated with 4 title vignettes as well as 210 (out of 211) plates of costumes, all woodcut, colored, and gummed. The work offers a study of the peoples of the world known at the time. The author, following the example of zoologists such as Cuvier and Lesson, distinguishes three primitive human races: the white or Caucasian race, the yellow or Mongolian race, and the black or African race. His objective is to study their subdivisions as well as their moral and intellectual differences. Black people are described in the introduction in these terms: “The black race is characterized by black or blackish skin that exudes an oily and foul-smelling sweat, an elongated head that tapers at the top, a low forehead, protruding jaws, oblique teeth longer than those of the preceding races, a broad, flat nose, thick lips, a very large mouth, prominent cheeks, generally short, woolly hair, and a short, very sparse beard; the facial angle is barely 75 degrees. It is scattered across a few islands in Oceania and in the central and southern parts of Africa. A great many of its people, reduced to slavery, went on to populate the white colonies in the Americas: there they multiplied, and their numbers now exceed those of their masters. ” A copy in very fine period color. Each volume is complete, with the exception of the last, from which one plate is missing (Colas lists 49). Normal wear and tear. Foxing spots. Provenance: Bookplate “Bibliotheca Vallis Scholarium.” — Bourlon de Rouvre, with bookplate.