1802 — Very Good English Original hand-coloured engraved plate. Slightly chipped on paper. Edges gilt. Large 4to. (37 x 27 cm). With its separate sheet of descriptive bilingual text in English and French. An attractive, richly colored and detailed engraved image. Very good, bright. An original plate from Dalvimart's famous and extremely rare work 'The costume of Turkey', first edition in 1802. Little is known about Octavien Dalvimart, besides the facts that he worked in Britain as painter and engraver, and that he was living in Paris in 1803. According to the prologue to this edition, he travelled during four years (starting in 1796), always drew from nature, and was in Athens in 1797. This elegant work was first published in 1802, and again in 1818 and 1820. It includes 60 drawings of human types from the Ottoman Empire. (Abbey Travel 370; Colas 782; Lipperheide 1422). The explanatory texts, in English and French, are based on extracts from works by Baron de Tott, J. Dallaway, G.A. Olivier, M. Montague, J. Pitton de Tournefort, ?ouradgea d'Ohsson and others. Dalvimart's drawings have been used in similar albums and illustrated other travel accounts. Human types are precisely drawn and handsomely depicted in very real colors. "Simia is one of the numerous islands scattered all over the Archipelago. It is at a very small distance from the Asiatic coast, and a little to the north of the island of Rhodes. Most of these islands were formerly the cause of frequent wars, and were sometimes subject to one power, sometimes to another, and many of them were often also independent of all. They have now, however, for a great length of time, been subject to the Turkish government, which derives an annual tribute from each of them. It has been remarked before, that the dress of the women in many of these islands was extremely picturesque and becoming. The present, perhaps, is only partially so, on account of the concealment of the lower part of the face; as well as on account of the form of the body, which is too undeterminate, and therefore appears ill-formed". = "Simie est une de ces isles qui sont repandues en grand nombre dans l'Archipel. Elle est fort pres de la côte d'Asie, et en peu au nord de l'isle de Rhodes. Ces isles ont ete jadis la cause de guerres frequente, et ont apartenues, tantôt a un pouvoir, tantôt a un autre; quelques une ont souvent aussi ete independentes. Il y a deja longtems cependant qu'elles sont sous la domination de l'empire Ottoman, qui tire un tribut chaqu'une d'elles...".
