RACINET (Albert). Historical costume. Five hundred plates, three hundred in colour, gold and silver, two hundred in monochrome. Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1888. 6 volumes, large folio, illustrated with 500 plates. Bound in burgundy half-chagrin, spine ribbed, decorated and titled in gold. This monumental work took 12 years of uninterrupted labour. It is the most important general collection on costume: the documents were taken from previously published series and from original drawings drawn from public collections, according to Colas. In it we discover the costumes of the peoples of Europe, but also of America, Asia, Africa and Oceania, from antiquity to the eighteenth century. Great care is also taken to describe ornaments, hairstyles, footwear, weapons, tattoos, embroidery, furniture, etc. Volume 1, 12 plates (illustrated tables); Volume 2, 88 plates; Volume 3, 95 plates; Volume 4, 99 plates; Volume 5, 94 plates; Volume 6, 97 plates. 27 of these plates are called double plates and count as two plates. The work has been collated and is therefore strictly complete with all its plates. This is the "large edition". Bindings slightly rubbed, foxing. A good copy. (Colas, 2472)