Two volumes, folio (443 x 300mm and 492 x 345mm). 24 hand-colored lithographs with tissue guards (some foxing, mostly at beginning of second series). Contemporary gilt-stamped blue boards (first series with new white silk doublures and neat repairs, second series rebacked to style).

Tapadas Limeñas: this was the name given to the women who dressed in a characteristic though controversial Peruvian costume that consisted of a long veil covering the entire face but one eye. Interestingly, this was not seen as a show of piety and discretion, but as a way to give anonymity to women, to which the Catholic Church resisted and eventually condemned.

Bonnaffe (1820-1870) was a French artist, renowned for his time active in Lima, where he focused his attention on capturing the rich and distinctive local costumes of the region, and was evidently captivated -like the local artist Pancho Fierro- by the peculiar women dressed with the Saya y Manto, Tapadas, as discussed above.

From his time in Peru, he had two series of prints engraved and published, each album was issued separately, within a year´s time. Here we offer both together, in the contemporary stamped cloth bindings, and in a fine preservation box.

The plates are “signed” in the lower left corner AABffe (i.e. A.A. Bonnaffe, as noted in the cover title). The imprints on the plates read: “Dibujo. por A.A. Bonnaffe.” with various lithographers's names, e.g. Julien, Didier, J. Gaildreau, De Moraine, etc. No letterpress title or text was issued with the plates and only these two parts were ever published. Either album is rare, to find both together in this remarkable condition and in the original bindings is outstanding.

The plates are captioned as follows:

First series, 1856: 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) [1]; La Tapada (Saya y Manto) [2, the same title as the preceding plate but an entirely different image].

Second series, 1857: La Zamacueca; La Zamba (a la procesion); El Capeador; Chorrillos. Traje de Bano; El Panadero; La Plazera; El Arriero; La Chichera; El Aguador; La Lechera; El Velero; La Caleza.

Provenance: The Magnificent Library of Norman Bobins: Part One, American Color, 16 June, 2023, lot 21.

Hiler, p.101; Palau 32375; Bobins, Exotic and the Beautiful I:3. Not in Colas or Lipperheide.