[Theatre de la Milice etrangere: Schaubühne verschiedener in Teutschland bisher unbekannt gewester Soldaten von ausländischen Nationen].
Folio (235 x 380 mm). 28 engraved plates (3 unnumbered and 25 numbered consecutively), in magnificent contemporary colour throughout, raised in gilt. Contemporary brown calf; spine rebacked with giltstamped red label; leading edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. All edges red.
€ 12,500.00
Exceedingly rare, brilliantly hand-coloured set of costume engravings by the Augsburg master Martin Engelbrecht, depicting the protagonists of the War of the Austrian Succession then raging in Silesia. Some 150 plates we published in this series which cashed in on the timely subject and, specifically, the warriors' exotic appeal. They usually appear separately and were frequently cut out (one of the most popular applications of Engelbrecht's output); OCLC lists a single copy bound as a book with the title.
The combattants who aroused the greatest sensation were the fierce soldiers from the Habsburg monarchy's military border, first and foremost the Slavonian Pandours, notorious for their savagery. Ten engravings are dedicated to these vicious braves, including a portrait of their famous commander, Baron Francis Trenck, while nine more show Hungarian foot soldiers ("Tolpatches"), some on horseback. There is an unspecified Croat as well as a Dalmatian "Morlach"; a portrait of commander Johann Daniel von Menzel, like Trenck a master of the guerilla style; another of the towering Irishman James Kirkland, one of the "Potsdam Giants"; as well as a Prussian Hussar and a Lancer. The first two plates show the rulers Maria Theresia of Austria and Prussian King Frederick II who fought for sovereignty over Silesia. Each plate is accompanied by caption, usually a four-line rhyme pointing out the characteristics of the man depicted. Vividly coloured throughout in a contemporary hand with touches of gold heightening. Some slight thumbstaining, but very well preserved altogether in its first binding, its spine professionally restored.
OCLC 731447059 (Zurich).