A COLLECTION OF ETCHINGS ON THE COSTUMES AND FASHION OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE  Possibly Nuremberg, Germany, early 18th century.  German etchings grouped and later bound as a book on foreign Middle Eastern costumes and fashion, 94ff. and two fly-leaves, 59 etchings marked C. Weigel exc. (Christophe Weigel excudit) on either the bottom left or right corner, each engraved plate fully illustrated with a variety of characters from the Ottoman Empire and foreign lands, from dancers to ambassadors, from warriors to deacons and priests, from ladies of title to merchants, each illustration with a caption in German and a translation in Italian to the back in pencil, some illustrations tinted possibly at a later stage, bound in dark green plasticised covers with a tooled brown calf leather spine with the title in Italian in gold Costumi Turchi, each folio approximately 16.2cm x 11cm. The majority of the etchings in this book share several features of the series "Neu-eröffnete Welt-Galleria" published by Christophe Weigel the Elder (1654 - 1725) in Nuremberg in 1703, a collection of 100 costume plates etched by the Dutch artist Caspar Luyken (1672 - 1708) which aimed at representing the incredible variety of fashion and costume styles of the foreign lands in the 18th century. The strong presence of Turkish costumes and characters should not surprise considering the siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683. Eight engraved plates similar to ours were offered at Sotheby's London, The Travel Sale: Mediterranean and the Middle East, 12 - 13 October 2000, lot 397 with an estimate of £600 - 800 GBP.