Russia:

An attractive first edition set of the Russia volumes of Shoberl's great The World in Miniature series. The series was produced as an informative and exhaustive collection of the "various branches of the great family of Man" as well as serving as a useful guide to the "juvenile student". While the series was never finished, with demand tailing off as the series progressed, forty three volumes were nevertheless produced all to a high standard.

The seventy-two costume plates have kept their lovely colour and depict the typical dress of all stratas of Russian society, including the northern nomadic peoples such as the Samoyed, Chukchi, Kamchatka, and Oonalashka people.

First edition; Four volumes in two, 12mo (14.5 x 9.5 cm); 72 hand-coloured stipple-engraved plates, light offsetting from plates; contemporary brown cloth, blind stamped borders to boards with gilt motifs to upper boards within, gilt lettering to spines, a touch of fading, joints expertly repaired with upper inner hinge of vol. 1 cracked but firm, a very good set; xvi, 181, [ii], 294; [ii], 204, [ii], 267pp.

Abbey, Travel 6 (p.14); Colas 2727; Hiler 797; Cat. Russica S 1294; Solovev Kat.105, 337 (35 rub.).