Sitten, Gebräuche und Kleidung der Russen...

Leipzig, Im Industrie-Comptoir, [1801-05]. . Two parts in 1 vol.; 4to; XII, 95 [but 96] pp. with French and German text, 40 hand-coloured aquatint pl.; VIII, 63, [1] pp. German text, 28 hand-col. aquatint pl.; occasional light spotting, some plates lightly browned; contemporary marbled boards, gilt label to spine; extremities a bit rubbed.
Fine, fresh copy of this important illustrated work on Russian habits and costumes.

Christian Heinrich Geissler (1770-1844) was a famous German draughtsman who frequently worked for the Imperial court in Russia. Born in Leipzig, he quickly gained fame for his engravings of costumes and animated landscapes. After Geissler published a catalogue of Russian military uniforms enriched with 88 illustrations, the Imperial advisor Peter Simon Pallas offered his fellow countryman to join him on his expedition through Russia and the Caucasus with the role of illustrator and draughtsman. While Geissler spent most of the 1790s in Saint Petersburg, the expedition with Pallas took took him to the Southern Russia in 1793-1794 and resulted in the publication of several collections of engravings based on the sketches Geissler had made during his lengthy trip.

The present early ethnographic account illustrated with 68 hand-coloured plates is divided into two parts: one in French and German with forty engravings, and the other one only in German with twenty-eight plates. These two parts might have initially been published as two different works that were later bound together; however their scarcity in bibliographical works didn't allow us to confirm this.

The illustrations show Russian people of different social status and occupation and are accompanied by descriptions explaining the everyday habit or a tradition that a plate refers to. The narrative links all the descriptions together in such a way that the reader feels like he is accompanying the author on a trip through the streets of a typical Russian town, thus getting a most entertaining insight into the Russian people's life at that time. In addition, the narrator Dr. Gruber sometimes includes typical Russian words or phrases which he then explains to the reader. All of this combined makes the work very instructive, easy to read and pleasant to look at.
Colas 1207 (but calling for one volume with 40 plates only).