[Indonesia. Ethnography] Willem Frederik Versteeg (1824-1913). Extensive letter,

to "Très Honoré Mr. de Quatrefages", dated "Amsterdam, ce 22e octobre 1871", and signed "Votre serviteur très obéissant W.F. Versteeg", with manuscript appendices lettered A-D, total 36 double-sided, numbered leaves written in pen, followed by appendix E: a plate index (paginated 37) and 8 (of 10) plates paginated 38-42 (numbered 1-5) and 45-47 (numbered 8-10), bound together in contemporary half vellum with morocco title strip on spine, 28 x 22 cm.

Lacks plates 6 and 7 (portraits of natives); top hinge vulnerable on inside. With ex libris of the famous anthropologist and ethnologist Ernest Théodore Hamy (1842-1908), founder of the Musée d'Ethnografique du Trocadero, Paris, 1878. He is the author of such works as "Crania Ethnica" (1875-1882) together with De Quatrefages, whom he succeeded. For extensive information on Hamy, see: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hamy. W.F. Versteeg, Lieutenant Colonel of the engineers of the Indian army and Knight in the Military William Order. For two decades he travelled through Indonesia and is mostly known for his Algemene atlas voor Nederlandsch Indië (1862). For extensive information on him, see: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Frederik_Versteeg. Extensively on the world famous French biologist Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau (1810-1892): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Louis_Armand_de_Quatrefages_de_Bréau. Very interesting manuscript concerning three leading figures in the field of ethnography and Indonesian natives. The letter to De Quatrefages covers leaves 1-6. De Quatrefages had asked Versteeg at a congress in 1870 for a French translation of articles by important colleagues which had not appeared in French. The manuscript is Versteeg's reply, with an explanation of the appendices in the extensive letter: A: Notes sur les races humaines qui habitent l'archipel indien, by W.F. Versteeg himself (leaf 7-24 and own paging 1-36); B: Idées sur la population Alfoere, by Lüdeking (leaf 25-26, 3 pages); C: Quelques notices sur les tribus et les races humaines de Sumatra, by Dr. C. Swaving (leaf 27-34 and own paging 1-16); D: Alforas (…) peuple qui habite l'intérieur des grandes îles de la mer Moluques, by John Crawfurd (leaf 35-36, 4 pages); E. Plate index in pen (1 page) and 7 lithographed plates and a drawing in pencil of the mythical figure Orang Kubu.