134 - Johan Henrik Kramer: Turkiska nationens seder, bruk och klädedrägt. Stockholm, 1839

Johan Henrik Kramer: Turkiska nationens seder, bruk och klädedrägt. Stockholm, 1839 First edition, very large Quarto, contemporary typical Swedish binding, leather over boards with fine blinded decoration, joints slightly weak, complete 216p. and forty six (46) fine colored engravings of costumes of the Levant, plus one map and one engraving, text clean and bright, overall in very good plus condition, a nice copy very richly illustrated As the title suggests, a major focus is onklädedrägt(dress). Kramer explains how every turban, kaftan, and color in Constantinople served as a visual code for a person's rank, religion, and occupation.The book provides detailed descriptions of Greek and Turkish houses, the Harems, viewed through a lens of social organization rather than just romantic fantasy, an approach very close to the Scandinavian roots for the sauna of the author, and the rituals of coffee and tobacco. Kramer looks at the schools and the legal system of each community of the multinational Empire, though he is more interested in how these traditions maintained social stability for centuries. Kramer’s book publication caught the Ottoman Empire at the exact moment it was being told to put away the very customs and costumes he was documenting.The very richly illustrated book essentially became a museum in print for a world that was rapidly disappearing under Western influence. An amazing Scandinavian publication who provides a unique corpus of traditional dresses of the Levant. Extremely rare. References: Atabey 558