Sammlung verschiedener Spanischer National-Trachten and Uniformen

Hamburg: , 1808. Eighteen Super Hand Colored Aquatint Plates by Christoffer and Cornelius Suhr
Documenting the Uniforms of the Legendary Roman Division

SUHR, Christoffer. SUHR, Cornelius. Sammlung verschiedener Spanischer National-Trachten and Uniformen der Division des Marquis de la Romana, 1807 und 1808, in Hamburg in Garnison. Gezeichnet von Christ. Suhr, Prof. Radirt und geaezt von Corn. Hamburg: [1808].

First edition complete. Folio ( 14 1/4 x 9 inches; 362 x 228 mm.). Letterpress title and eighteen superb hand colored aquatint plates by Cornelius Suhr after Christan Suhr. All plates with the small blindstamp of C. Suhr on the lower blank margin.

Contemporary German brown marbled boards, covers ruled in gilt, all edges gilt. Small piece cut away from blank free endpaper. Spine and corner extremities a little rubbed. The plates all bright and fresh. A wonderful copy.

An unusual suite of plates showing the various Spanish national costumes and the uniforms of the Spanish troops from the Spanish Regiment of the Marquis de la Romana stationed at Hamburg during the Napoleonic Wars.

Rare: OCLC locatesjust two five in libraries & institutions worldwide: Brown University (RI/USA); Bibliotheque Nationale de France; Kunstbiblio Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Germany); Staats & Universitatsbibliothek Hamburg (Germany); State Library of Australia (possibly not colored) State Library of Western Australia

One of the only books to document the uniforms of the legendary Roman Division. They were in fact taken from life: Christian & Cornelius Suhr were citizens of Hamburg, a city which had become, due to the continental blockade, a centerpiece of the Napoleonic control system. Chistoffer Suhr taught at the Royal Academy in Berlin, liked to paint, day by day, sketches of all kinds of troops stationed in his city between 1806 and 1815. Among them, for a time, was the unit commanded by Pedro Caro y Sureda, 3rd Marquis of La Romana (1761-1811). Napoleon entrusted to him a corps intended to reinforce the French army in Germany. La Romana was therefore named commander of the "Northern Division" and spent the years 1807 and 1808 garrisoned in Hamburg, then in Denmark, under the orders of Marshal Bernadotte. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, La Romana made plans to repatriate his men to Spain. The fact that 9,000 of his men out of a total of 14,000 were able to board British ships on August 27, 1808 and thus escape to Spain is mainly to the credit of his astuteness and his talented organization.

Bobins II, 569; Colas II, 2833. Palau 324 923.