Recuerdos De Lima Album Tipos, Trajes y Costumbres Dibujados y Publicados Por A.A. Bonnaffé En Lima 1856 [cover title] .

[Paris and Lima], 1856. Folio, orig, cloth, renewed matching spine. 12 lithographed plates, 11 of them hand-colored.

A rare costume book depicting the people of Peru.

The plates, all of them printed in Paris and bearing the imprints of various lithographers, are captioned as follows: El Cholo Costenõ; La Chola Quesera; El Heladero; La Chola Frutera; El Biscochero; La Chola Rabona; La Tapada (de noche); El Indio de la Sierra; La Tapada; La Chola de la Sierra; La Tapada (Saya y Manto); and La Tapada (Saya y Manto), the last two with identical titles but different images.

La Tapada or La Tapada Limeña were elegant and mysterious women who wore a black veil and wrap (Saya y Manto), out of which they would peer with one eye. They were famous for beguiling visitors from around the world and it is not surprising that four of the twelve plates are devoted to this charming fashion. The artist and publisher A.A. Bonnaffé (1820–1870) was a native of France who appears to have lived for a time in Lima. The city was, of course, a port-of-call for vessels sailing around the Horn. Bonnaffé’s vivid color plate books doubtless made splendid souvenirs for visitors. This is the first of two volumes of lithographs of Lima subjects published by Bonnaffé in 1856 and 1857.

REFERENCES: Palau, Manual del Librero Hispano-Americano, 32375.

CONDITION: Good, old dampstains on upper cover, tissue guards foxed, plates generally clean with the occasional touch of foxing.