[COOK]. Costumes of different nations, in miniature, from drawings by Alfred Mills.

London : Darton, Harvey, & Darton, and J. Harris,  1814. Miniature book, 62 x 62 mm., publisher’s roan (expertly rebacked), gilt-lettering to spine, child’s name to preliminary blank, 96 pp. with 47 copperplate illustrations of people of the world, a very good copy.

A charming miniature being an ethnographical tour of different races of the world, the studies include descriptions of the Greenlander, African Negro, Chinese, West Indians, Tahitians and New Zealanders. The final section of the book is captioned ‘South Sea’, and 9 pages and with 4 plates, concerns Otaheite and New Zealand, largely based on the discoveries of Cook and with frequent references to the explorer.   A rare and delightful miniature, two examples recorded in Australian collections (State Library of New South Wales; University of Melbourne), while Monash University holds the 1811 edition.

Welsh 4986; Spielmann 364