A Collection of Interesting Subjects of Military Occurrences, Costumes &c

London, 26, Haymarket: Thomas McLean. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Very Good. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. ALKEN Henry and HEATH William. AN EXTREMELY RARE COLLECTION OF MILITARY COSTUME PLATES Large octavo, manuscript title, hand coloured folding engraved title (Foreign Military Costume) and eighty four hand coloured engraved plates (two folding), title and plates cut and inlaid to size within a panel cut from a leaf of paper with an elaborately engraved border surrounding the print, the first forty plates with manuscript title labels. Contemporary half red straight grain morocco, ruled in gilt, over marbled boards, spine decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, all edges gilt, bookplate to fpd (Julia Parker Wightman). The first forty plates are from A Collection of Interesting Subjects of Marine Views, Military Parade, Hunting, Coursing, Racing &c &c by Henry Alken, which according to Abbey is the rarest Alken item: unknown to Siltzer, Slater and Schwerdt. Two other copies only can be traced: one, in the possession of D.C. Colman, Esq, and the second a sale room record for December 1905... According to the sale record the date of the book is 1830, but it would appear highly probable that it was considerably earlier, for the following reasons: spelling of the publisher's name as McLane and not McLean places it before 1830, and the few plates that portray actual historical incidents all bear on the Russian campaign against Napoleon. Further, by 1830 the work of Alken was devoted to sporting subjects only. A reasonable guess at the correct date is more likely than 1822 or 1823, and probably even before 1820 (Abbey). Of the remaining forty four plates, the first twenty four, plus the folding title, appear to be from William Heath's Foreign Military Costume (London: T. McLean, 1823), which contained an engraved title and six engraved plates, each containing four subjects. The plates in this copy are all lettered in pencil, consist of the following military costumes: French (four plates), Austrian (four plates), Russian (four plates), Prussian (four plates), Spanish (four), Chinese (one plate), Greek (one plate), Persian (one plate), and Turkish (one plate). The final twenty plates appear to be from William Heath's British Military Costume (London: T. McLean, 1824), which contained an engraved title and six engraved plates, each containing four subjects. A Fine Copy of this Extremely Rare Collection. (268*182 mm). (Abbey, Life, 394. Colas 1396. Hiler p419).