Die Uniformen der Preussischen Garden,
Berlin: George Gropius, 1840. Item #06740
The Most Comprehensive Contemporary History of the Prussian Guard Corps
Complete with All 106 Contemporary Hand-Colored Uniform Plates
Apparently the Only Complete Copy Recorded in Commerce
[GROPIUS, George, publisher]. Die Uniformen der Preussischen Garden, von ihrem Entstehen bis auf die neueste Zeit, nebst einer kurzen geschichtlichen Darstellung ihrer verschiedenen Formationen. 1704-1836. Zum Besten einiger Invaliden der Garde. Mit Zuziehung der Stammlisten der Armee. Berlin: George Gropius, 1840.
First edition. Quarto (9 3/8 x 7 7/8 inches; 238 x 200 mm.). Title, 117 pages of text, divided into nine separately-paginated sections (32, 12, 12, 12, 60, 38, 48, 6, and 14 pages), illustrated with 106 magnificent contemporary hand-colored engraved plates, including seven plates devoted to details of uniforms, military equipment, insignia, and accoutrements. The plates depict the evolution of every branch of the Prussian Guard Corps from its origins under the Great Electors through the reforms following the Napoleonic Wars and into the reign of Frederick William III. Final third of text block with some light natural toning, as is frequently encountered; the engraved plates remarkably fresh, bright, and clean throughout, the contemporary hand-coloring exceptionally well preserved.
Contemporary three-quarter tan calf over brown textured cloth ruled in gilt. Spine with four shallow raised bands, elaborately tooled in gilt and blind, lettered in gilt in compartments, marbled edges. Expertly rebacked preserving the original spine, corners expertly repaired. A handsome contemporary binding in excellent condition.
An outstanding copy of one of the rarest and most comprehensive nineteenth-century works devoted to the history and uniforms of the Prussian Guards.
Unlike most military costume books, which merely illustrate contemporary dress with brief explanatory captions, this substantial work combines a scholarly regimental history with one of the most extensive series of contemporary military costume plates ever published in Prussia. The text is organized into nine separately-paginated historical monographs, each devoted to one of the principal branches of the Guard Corps, including the Foot Guards, the King's Guard, the Grenadier Guard Battalion, the First Guard Regiment, the Guard Artillery, and the celebrated Garde du Corps. Each section traces the origin, organization, commanders, campaigns, strength, and successive reorganizations of the regiment concerned, while the accompanying hand-colored engravings record in extraordinary detail the evolution of uniforms, arms, insignia, headgear, and equipment from the early eighteenth century through the sweeping military reforms that followed Prussia's defeat by Napoleon.
Issued "for the benefit of certain invalids of the Guard" (Zum Besten einiger Invaliden der Garde), the work was evidently intended for a limited audience of officers, veterans, and military historians. The quality of both its printing and its illustration reflects the standards of George Gropius, one of Berlin's foremost publishers of military and topographical works during the first half of the nineteenth century.
The survival of complete copies appears to be exceptionally uncommon. The present copy contains all 106 contemporary hand-colored engraved plates, a collation carefully verified by repeated physical examination.
Institutional records presently trace only three copies in Germany - at the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, the Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (the latter two may conceivably represent duplicate catalogue records for a single copy) - together with a copy at Brown University recorded as containing only ninety-nine plates. Likewise, the only copy located at auction during more than a century of public sales, offered at Dörling (Germany) in 2017, likewise contained only ninety-nine plates.
In the absence of any published plate list, the complete original collation has long remained uncertain. The present example, with its full complement of 106 contemporary hand-colored engraved plates, therefore appears to represent the most complete copy currently recorded and may well preserve the publisher's intended collation in its entirety.
One of the great illustrated monuments of nineteenth-century Prussian military history and unquestionably among the rarest surviving military costume books of the period.
Price: $17,500.00