"IMMEDIATELY BECAME THE BASIS FOR MANY OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF MEXICO": 1830 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION OF LINATI'S COSTUMES AND CUSTOMS OF MEXICO, WITH 33 VIBRANTLY HAND-COLORED LITHOGRAPHS

(MEXICO) LINATI, (Claudio). Costumes et Moeurs du Mexique. London: Engelmann, Graf Coindet, & Cie., 1830. Quarto, original green cloth. $12,500.

First English edition of this early lithographic plate book on Mexico, with 33 vibrantly hand-colored lithographs of Mexican costumes, customs, and historic personages, in nicely restored original cloth.

"Immediately became the basis for many other illustrations of Mexico, as well as the principal source for information on the region since Humboldt" (Mathes). In addition to portraying a variety of Mexican civilians, soldiers, laborers, and servants, this collection of lithographs includes a portrait of "Moctetzouma Xocotzin" (Moctezuma II); a portrait of General Guadalupe Victoria, President of the Mexican Republic; a portrait of José María Morelos, the Roman Catholic priest and revolutionary who led the Mexican War of Independence movement; an Apache chief on horseback "from the Colorado River in California"; a Mexican "ranchero" dragging "an officer from the front of his battalion with the historic lasso"; and a man extracting pulque de maguey to make the traditional alcoholic beverage from the fermented sap of the maguey (agave) plant known as pulque, using a long gourd to suck out the sap (pulque was considered sacred); and a cockfight. A work under a similar title appeared in Brussels in 1828 with 48 plates. Captions in French. Sabin 41143. Colas 1873. Mathes, Mexico on Stone, 8-14. From the Library of Virginia House in Richmond with its bookplate, discreet call number in pencil on title page margin; plates unmarked. Owner ink signature dated 1925. Old dealer descriptions tipped to pastedowns.

Minor expert repair to margins of last plate, plates generally clean with only a few instances of marginal soiling, hand-coloring vibrant. Spine, joints and extremities expertly restored. A very good copy in the original cloth.