BONAPARTE (Roland). The Inhabitants of Suriname. Notes recueillies à l'exposition coloniale d'Amsterdam en 1883. Paris: imprimerie de A. Quantin, 1884. - In-folio, 440 x 305: (3 ff.), VIII, 226 pp., (1 f.), 2 maps, 73 plates. Publisher's green percaline, black fillets framing the boards, gilt title and crowned eagle on the first board, smooth spine in later green cloth, title-piece attached. Chadenat, I, no. 765. This original edition presents a pioneering study of Dutch Guiana and its inhabitants, which is at once geographical, economic and, above all, ethnographic (description of human races in space), ethnological (analysis of their evolution over time) and sociological (synthesis of the principles derived from the first two disciplines). The author, Roland Bonaparte (1858-1924), drew on the colony's representatives at the Colonial Exhibition in Amsterdam in 1883 to paint this comprehensive picture. According to Chadenat, this is the most important work published in French on the anthropology and ethnography of this region. The study explores three ethnic groups: the Indians (Kalinas and Arawaks), the woodland dwellers (Saramaca and Aucans), and the sedentary populations - those of the plantations and towns, including the Creoles of the Colony. Published in a limited, non-commercial edition (copies were distributed by the author himself), this work is distinguished by its rich iconography. It features a frontispiece designed by Alexandre Prévost, a title vignette and nine ornate letters, all printed in bistre. The edition also includes a reproduction of the poster for the Rotonde des habitants du Suriname at the Amsterdam Exhibition, and two out-of-text fold-out color maps (one of the colony of Suriname, the other of its coastal region). The illustrations include thirteen chromolithographs based on watercolors by Lewenstein, depicting headdresses, ornaments, utensils and instruments, as well as 65 photographs reproduced in phototypesetting by Roche. Of these, 4 adorn the chapter headings, while the other 61, outside the text, are divided into 55 portraits of Surinamese people attending the Exhibition and 6 scenes from their daily lives. Spine rebound with green sticky cloth, inner hinges cracked, corners dulled. Mottling on the edges or corners of several leaves, scattered foxing. The two maps are unbound.