The Costume of the Russian Empire, Illustrated by a Series of Seventy-Three Engravings

London: Printed for W. Miller by S. Gosnell, 1803. First edition. Hardcover. very good. Folio. Unpaginated. Original dark blue straight grain morocco with gilt and blind-stamped decorative ruling and tooling on covers and spine, gilt lettering on spine; raised bands and dentelles. Gilt edges. Burnt umber endpapers. Color frontispiece. Two title and dedication pages in English and French. Preface by the publisher. Illustrated with seventy-three (73) hand-colored stipple engravings by J. Dadley for W. Miller, each accompanied by text leaves in English on recto and French on verso. "The fourth in the series of costume books issued by William Miller. The (truncated) complete list, with published prices and references to others of the series in this collection, will be found in the Notes to the earliest book, Mason's "The Costume of China, 1800, No. 533 (JA1106), where the origin and subsequent history of the series as a whole is also discussed... The text to this English edition is said to be by William Alexander...The Cat. Russia records what it calls another edition in 1803, and an edition printed by Howlett and Brimmer in 1803, but other references to these have not been found." (Abbey 244). The plates in this book are copied from a series of engravings begun in St. Petersburg in 1776, and finished in 1779, under the care and at the expense of C. W. Müller, at the desire of the late Empress. Professionally rebacked retaining original elements.. Title page with some small markings and previous owner's name inked to top. Few light markings and minor smudges on block. Spine professionally rebacked and restored. A very good copy, handsomely bound. (Inventory #: 46056)