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ALEXANDER, William : COSTUME OF CHINA

ALEXANDER, William. THE COSTUME OF CHINA, ILLUSTRATED IN FORTY-EIGHT COLOURED ENGRAVINGS. London: William Miller, 1805. Aquatint dedication leaf, followed by the title leaf, a 'List of Subsrcibers' [2] ff., 48 hand- colored aquatint plates interleaved with [48] leaves of descriptive letterpress printed on rectos only, and an 'Index' leaf with directions to the binder. This copy lacks the half-title and the dedication has been bound in its place. Besides costumes, the plates show cities, habitations, temples, boats, etc. Quarto, 33 x 25.5 cm, contemporary light brown, straight grain morocco with gilt borders on sides, gilt decoration and title on spine, gilt inner dentelles, a.e.g. Ex library, but with minimal markings: a small 'withdrawn from collection' stamp on recto and verso of ffep., a perforated stamp and small ink stamp to t.p., and a small ink stamp on first text page. Binding is worn at edges, rubbed along joints, and shows small loss at either end of spine. The first text leaf is moderately spotted; otherwise there is only occasional light spotting and offsetting to some text leaves, and very light spotting to a very few plates. William Alexander (1767-1816) is best remembered for his work on China in a period in which the Chinese style greatly influenced the decorative arts in Britain. He travelled to China as draughtsman with Lord Macartney's Embassy to the Emperor in 1792-4. Besides the present work, his drawings illustrative of the expedition were engraved for the official record: G. Staunton's An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China, 1797, and another of his own publications, Views of the Headlands, Islands, etc. (1798). His designs were also used for the aquatints in John Barrow's A Voyage to Cochin China, in the Years 1792, and 1793 (1806). (Oxford DNB; Abbey Travel, 534; Tooley English Books, 18; Cordier Sinica III, 1858-9).

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