A beautiful complete set in a handsome contemporary binding, rare thus. "A valuable and dainty series." (Martin Hardie).

Published in monthly parts between 1821 and 1827, the motto on each title-page was "the proper study of mankind is man," and the idea was to produce a series, as the preface states, "descriptive of the peculiar manners, customs, and characters of the different nations of the globe."

The set features the world's inhabitants in typical dress and is one of the most wide-ranging costume series published up to that time. Included in the set are:Africa (4 volumes); The Asiatic Islands and New Holland (2 volumes); China (2 volumes) Hindustan (6 volumes); Japan; Persia (3 volumes); Russia (4 volumes); South Seas (2 volumes); Tibet; and Turkey (6 volumes)

Shoberl (1775-1853), "journalist and writer, was born in London of German descent, and educated at the Moravian school at Fulneck, near Leeds. He settled in London with his family, having married before 1802. He and his wife, Theodosia, had two sons, William and Frederic. Shoberl became, with Henry Colburn, the originator and co-proprietor of the New Monthly Magazine, which began in February 1814. For some time he acted as its editor, and contributed original articles and reviews. He was long associated with Rudolph Ackermann, whose Repository of Arts he edited from March 1809 to December 1828. He conducted Ackermann's English annual, The Forget-me-Not, from 1822 until 1834, and also edited the Juvenile Forget-me-Not from 1828 to 1832. In addition to his work for Ackermann, Shoberl was printer and publisher of the Cornwall Gazette, Falmouth Packet, and Plymouth Journal (1818–19), a Conservative paper issued at Truro.

As well as his journalistic writing, Shoberl produced numerous other works reflecting his varied interests. In 1814 he published A History of the University of Oxford, followed by A History of the University of Cambridge in 1815 and An Historical Account of the House of Saxony in 1816. He had already published a variety of travel literature: Travellers in Switzerland (1803), Travels in Greece, Palestine, Egypt and Barbary (translated from a French original, 1812), and Travels in Caucasus and Georgia (translated from a German original, 1814). Later he became involved in producing a large number of translations from, among others, Klopstock, Kotzebue, Alfred de Vigny, Thiers, and Chateaubriand. He was also involved in the continuation, with J. Nightingale and others, of Brayley and Britton's Beauties of England and Wales, having compiled volume 14 containing Suffolk, Surrey, and Sussex in 1813. With J. Watkins he compiled A Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816).

Shoberl died at Thistle Grove, Brompton, London, on 5 March 1853, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery on 12 March. His wife had predeceased him on 18 December 1838, as had his younger son, Frederic, who had been printer to Prince Albert at 51 Rupert Street and had died on 22 March 1852, aged forty-eight. Shoberl was survived by his elder son, William, who was first an assistant to the publisher H. Colburn, and then a publisher in his own right at 20 Great Marlborough Street, London". (ODNB).




First edition. 43 volumes, complete set. 12mo (14 x 9 cm.), with all 647 hand-coloured engraved plates, some folding; occasional slight spotting, 2 plates bound out of order in volume 16, and the Doctor of Music, listed in volume 40 is bound as the frontispiece to volume 41.
Uniform contemporary calf with panel design and single gilt rule, spine decorated in gilt, title and volume lettered direct, marbled edges, original green bookmarks;a fine set.