Excursions chez les peuples étranges : causeries ethnographiques

/ avec une préface de A.Quatrefages, membre de l’institut-professeur au muséum d’histoire naturelle; illustrations en couleur par H.Leutemann. Paris : Librairie de Théodore Lefèvre et Cie., Emile Guérin, éditeur, [1889]. First edition. Quarto, original cloth backed pictorial papered boards (lightly rubbed), pp vi, 71, [1 table of contents], with 12 double-leaf chromolithographic illustrations bound in hors texte, the subjects being: les hindous; les chinois; les japonais; les arabes; les nubiens; les nègres; les hottentots et les bochimans; les esquimaux; les guaranis et les patagons; les papous; les polynésiens; les australiens; occasional light foxing, a fine copy. Text in French.

A beautifully produced late nineteenth century children’s ethnography. German illustrator Henrik Leutemann’s superb chromolithographs depicting a total of fourteen different ethnic groups are each accompanied by six pages of text describing the material culture and traditional way of life of a particular people. A key beneath each illustration draws the young reader’s attention to details within the picture.

The six page chapter on ‘Les polynesiens’ includes references to the European explorers and description of the customs of the inhabitants of the different islands. This is followed by a six-page chapter on ‘Les papous’, describing the Melanesian region, and subsequently a six page chapter ‘Les australiens’, with discussion of the Dutch and English explorers, the founding of the colony at Botany Bay, inland explorers, much discussion on Indigenous Australians, their customs and lifestyle. The illustration of Australian Aborigines includes a bark shelter; a boomerang; spears; a shield; a kangaroo; a platypus; dingos, and a brushturkey.

Rare.