Forum Rare Books

Letter by famous French sinologist

[AUTOGRAPH]. ABEL-RÉMUSAT, Jean Pierre. [Autograph letter, signed, revealing his work for deaf mutes to a critic].
[Paris], 20th June 1825[?]. 1 leaf (20 x 12.6 cm). In French. [1] p. text. Full description

€ 750

One of the earliest Antwerp records of Charles V’s Italian financier

[MANUSCRIPT - NOTARIAL DECLARATION]. AFFAITATI, Giovan Carlo (Johannes Carolus de AFFAYTADI). Ratificatio facta p[er] m[agnifi]cu[m] d[ominum] Jo[hannes] Carolu[s] de Affaytalis, in favorem m[agnifi]ci et r[everen]di d[omino]. Guidi d[e] Crema et Rafaelis Krumani p[e]r Castro S[anc]ti Laurentii et terris.
Antwerp, 20 January 1546. Manuscript notarial document in Latin, written in a Latin hand on one side of a single piece of sheepskin parchment (31 x 54.5 cm), opening with a large capital and closing with the notary's decorative signature, with the title and "M. Johan Carlo" on the back. Folded and loosely inserted in a paper folder (ca. 1690s?). [1] leaf. Full description

€ 1,250

Dutch tourist journal of a bourgeois woman's visit to Paris

ALBERDINGK THIJM, Catharina & Josephus Albertus ALBERDINGK THIJM. Notice de mes souvenirs d'un voyage à Paris, écrite pour mes chers enfans.Amsterdam, 1838. Small 8vo. Manuscript in French, written in ink in a regular and readable hand on 7 quires of writing-paper, some with a slight green cast.
With: ALBERDINGK THIJM, Josephus Albertus. Decemberliedtjen op tantes feest, in 1878. Manuscript poem, signed J.A.Th. 4to. Folded.Loose quires in a contemporary red morocco portfolio with gold-tooled title and ornamental frames on covers, richly gold-tooled turn-ins and silk paste-downs. With 3 pairs of green silk ties. 135, [4 blank]; 4 pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Album amicorum with many illustrated contributions (some hand-coloured),
particularly by women reflecting the rage for alba amicorum among 19th-century noble women

[ALBUM AMICORUM & SCRAPBOOK - THE NETHERLANDS]. [Album amicorum of a Miss van Boetzelaer (?)].
Heerenveen, 1831-1849. Oblong 4to. Manuscript with many contributions in French and English, a single contribution in Dutch and a four-line verse in German, mainly written in the same hand, probably of the owner of this album. With 45 mounted or occasionally loosely inserted drawings, paintings and prints in various formats, some coloured by contemporary hands. Contemporary gold- and blind-tooled brown morocco, each board richly decorated with frames and an oblong lozenge-shaped centrepiece, gilt edges. [96] ll. Full description

€ 3,850

Family album with rare photos of Australia and India in the late 19th century

[ALBUM AMICORUM - AUSTRALIA - INDIA]. DICKEN, Charles Shortt and DICKEN FAMILY. [Album containing illustrations and photographs of Australia and India]. [Illustrated title-page:] Contributions thankfully received.
Australia [and England and India?], 1870s. Oblong album (ca. 23 x 30 cm). With 36 albumen prints, including 14 photographs of Australia. These include houses, churches, buildings in Springsure, Queensland around 1870, photos of Charles with his horse, a wonderful picture of an "Alligator killed in the Mackay River" and "bottle trees near Taroon", 5 photographs of India: Bengal Camp Delhi, multiple group photos in Darjeeling, a group photo in front of the government house in Calcutta, and the crew of the H.M.S. Narcissus, 17 photographs of Gibraltar, America, Switserland, art pieces and the Dicken family. Further with 24 watercolour paintings of flowers, landscapes and people, including two of the Taj Mahal, and 17 coloured pencil and ink drawings of people. The drawings and paintings are almost all signed S. P. D. or F. E. D., who were likely members of the Dicken family. Most photographs and art pieces are captioned in pencil or brown ink, several leaves are decorated with additional drawings or dried plants. Contemporary maroon cloth, embroidered with yellow flowers. Comes in a custom-made black-cloth clamshell box (internally covered in burgundy cloth), with a black morocco title-label on the spine, lettered in gold, and a folding liner of the same burgundy cloth. [50] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

Charming album with accomplished pencil and watercolor sketches and views
from France, Algeria and Spain

[ALGIERS & SPAIN]. J. M. (artist?). [Views and people along the Mediterranean coasts of France, Spain and Algeria].
[London sketchbook used in the Mediterranean], 1881. Small oblong 8vo (8,5 x 13 cm). Album (sketchbook) containing 28 pencil drawings (1 double-page), 2 colored drawings and 4 watercolors (1 double-page ) with handwritten captions in English. Half checkered black morocco. With advertising label of "Lechertier, Barbe & Co. Artists colourmen and Stationers, Regent Street, London" with prices of the various sketchbooks for sale; at the head the artists(?) initials and date: "J.M. 1881". 70 pp. Full description

€ 1,850

Dala'il al-khayrat written in China

AL-JAZULI, Muhammad ibn Sulaiman. Dalâ'il al-khayrat. [= "Waymarks of benefits"].
[Eastern Turkestan, now Xinjiang, China, early 17th century CE]. 4to (19 x 14 cm). Manuscript written in black ink on paper in Arabic script, with a red single- or double-line frame around each page, rubricated throughout, and two illustrations on pages 47 and 48) showing the "Ka'ba of Allah" (!) and the burial sites of the first three Rashidun Caliphs. The Arabic script is in the sini calligraphic style used in China, an archaic form mixing features of naskh and muhaqqaq. Contemporary(?) black, red and gold painted and lacquered leather over paper and cloth. The painted sides show floral designs in black and gold on a red background, in a black border with red wave designs. With remnants of leather on the brown cloth spine. [1], 337 pp. Full description

€ 38,000

Original Portuguese manuscript poem, published in 1815

ALMEDO [= Fr. José de CORAÇÃO DE JESUS]. No dia dos felices anos dos ilustrissimos. e excellentimos. senhores a senhora D. Mariana Victoria de Menezes e o Senhor Ascenso de Siqueira Freire.
[Lisbon?, ca. 1790?]. 4to. Manuscript. Sewing removed. [6], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 500

Three letters written in 1539 on the Ottoman threat in the Mediterranean

[LETTERS]. ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO, Pedro and Maria OSORIO Y PIMENTEL. [Three letters to Ferrante Gonzaga, Viceroy of Sicily, two from Pedro Alvarez de Toledo and one from his wife Maria Osorio y Pimentel].
Andria (in the Kingdom of Naples), 13 August to 10 September 1539. Folio (21.5 x 30 cm).
(1) Letter in Italian, signed, from Pedro Alvarez de Toledo in Andria to Ferrante Gonzaga, 13 August 1539, with a 23 mm seal bearing Alvarez de Toledo's coat of arms (with a chain of flags) stamped on a slip of paper attached with red wax.
(2) Letter in Spanish, signed, from Pedro Alvarez de Toledo in Andria to Ferrante Gonzaga, 3 September 1539, with the 45 mm imperial armorial seal stamped on a slip of paper attached with red wax.
(3) Letter in Italian, signed, from Maria Osorio y Pimentel [in Andria] to Ferrante Gonzaga, 10 September 1539, with the remains of what appears to be her husband's 23 mm red wax seal.
Each letter, in brown ink, occupies one page, with the last page containing the address and the sender's seal. The two inside pages of the second and third letter are blank. Each formerly folded for posting, so that the address would have appeared on one side and the seal on the other. [4]; [4]; [2] pp. including blanks. Full description

€ 15,000

Including a manuscript leaf by Burton

[ARABIAN NIGHTS]. BURTON, Richard F. The book of the thousand nights and a night[:] a plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments.
With:
(2) BURTON, Richard F. Supplemental nights.
(3) BURTON, Richard F. [Autograph manuscript book review of an 1881 Panchatantra edition].
(Colophons: U.S.A. [Boston, MA?]), The Burton Club, [ca. 1940]. 16 volumes (incl. 6 supplements). 8vo. With an original manuscript leaf written by Burton (with the manuscript heading: "Proof to Sir R.F.B. Hotel des Bains, Aigle, Canton Vaud, Switzerland" and a note "Long Primer Pressig.") and each volume with a different frontispiece in two states (coloured and uncoloured). Contemporary richly gold-blocked green morocco, boards with Arabic script in gold, gold-tooled turn-ins. Full description

€ 25,000

Very early manuscript treatise about the fatwa

[ARABIC MANUSCRIPT]. Kitab Al-Waqi'at fi'l-Fatawi [Kitab Al-Waghi'at Fi Al-Fatwi].
[Levant, ca. 1290]. Small 4to in 6s (17 x 14) cm. Arabic manuscript, 15 to 17 lines to the page, written in clear cursive ta'liq script on brown Middle Eastern paper. With occasional red rubrication.
Contemporary (?) blind-tooled calf, mostly covered with later calf leaving only the contemporary back cover exposed. 19th century European paper endpapers. With a loose leaf of 18th century European paper with Arabic manuscript writing on one side. 374 ll. Full description

€ 35,000

Richly illustrated manuscript teaching religion to deaf-mutes

[ASSAROTTI, Ottavio Giovanno Battista]. Dottrina Christiana. [Manuscript in Italian].
[Genoa, ca. 1815/20]. 8vo. With 117 (of 118) full-page hand-coloured drawings, each in a frame of double rules (20.5 x 14 cm), with lively illustrations of the Christian doctrine, and text in Italian. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. 117 (of 118), [3 blank] ll., including the last 3 blanks. Full description

€ 18,500

Graphically stunning 3-volume historical manuscript atlas

[ATLAS - HISTORICAL]. Atlas historique. - Souvenirs historiques. - Tableaux et cartes.
[Montpellier?], [date on spine of vol. 1:] 1851. 3 volumes. Folio (vol. 1) and large 4to (vols. 2-3). Neatly written manuscripts on paper with 23 graphically vibrant maps, coloured in outline with subtly shaded washes in grey (for the coasts) and numerous bright colours (for political boundaries), and with calligraphic headings. Contemporary bindings: vol. 1 red half goatskin; vol. 2 black half goatskin; vol. 3 black sheepskin. [1], [26 double]; [1], [22 double]; [1], 30 double, [1] ll. Full description

€ 1,750

Collection of autograph letters by the leading French sinologist Stanislas Aignan Julien

[AUTOGRAPH LETTERS]. JULIEN, Stanislas Aignan. [Collection of 28 autograph letters by Stanislas Julien to several correspondents].
Paris, 17 January 1839 - 13 April 1869. Varying sizes, most on similar paper 21 x 13.5 cm. Autograph letters written in French, in a neat cursive in brown ink, signed and dated, many of the letters have been written on paper with a "Collége[!] Imperial de France" letterhead. One with Paris postal stamps on the back (addressed to Monsieur Desnoyers, 17 January 1839). 5 letters are mounted on additional leaves (4 letters in 2 pairs, each pair on a separate leaf and 1 dated 13 April 1869 on a separate leaf). The whole collection is kept together in a clear plastic cover. 28 letters on 28 (folded) leaves. Full description

€ 12,500

How to restore French power in British India after the Seven Years' War: a diplomatic draft

[AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT - FRANCE, ENGLAND & INDIA]. [French manuscript on the negotiation strategy of the French with the British on India.]
ca. 1778. Folio. Sewn with two small chords in the left upper and bottom corner. [7], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Unpublished letter from Philipp Melanchthon

[AUTOGRAPH]. MELANCHTHON, Philipp. [Autograph letter, signed, from Philipp Melanchthon to Sebastian Boetius].
[Wittenberg], Easter [14 April 1555]. Folio (19.5 x 32 cm). In Latin. [2] pp. Full description

€ 45,000

Four months on a windjammer to India: how to shorten a tiresome voyage in 1835

[AUTOGRAPH]. BALDWIN, John Timins. [Manuscript diary and drawing of his voyage to India].
[Onboard the ship from Portsmouth to Madras, India, 1835]. 4to. With a half-page pen drawing on p. 168 and a loosely inserted full-page drawing (16.5 x 22 cm) by Baldwin of a mausoleum in India. 20th-century grey paper over boards. [4] ll.; 189 pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Letter from the president of the Royal Society inviting a German inventor to discuss a scientific "novelty"

[AUTOGRAPH]. BANKS, Joseph. [Autograph letter to Johann Gottlieb Frederic Schmidt].
London, 30 April [ca. 1800]. 8vo (19 x 11 cm). Autograph letter in ink on laid paper, written on the first page of a bifolium, with the address on the last page. Folded twice more for posting with the address on the outside. Full description

€ 3,250

Signed autograph letters of a leading French naval official at Toulon up to the Second Empire

[AUTOGRAPH]. BAUDIN, Charles. [Collection of 14 signed, mostly autograph letters].
Toulon, 1842-1849. 8vo and 4to. Letters in black and brown ink on paper (11 with the "prefecture maritime" letterhead), 1 with its original envelope and 3 originally folded, addressed and sealed for posting without an envelope. Full description

€ 11,500

Lieutenant Colonel Rudolph Bentincks army journals in the Netherlands, the Mediterranean and Portugal:
inspecting fortifications, mines, troops and young ladies

[BENTINCK, Volkier Rudolph]. [Wrapper-title:] Journael zedert 1771.
[Maastricht, Bois-le-Duc, Bergen op Zoom, Namur, etc., 7 July - 3 September 1771 & The Mediterranean and Portugal, 23 May - 18 August 1774]. 2 matching journals. Folio (32.5 x 20.5 cm). Two manuscript journals in French, written in brown ink on laid paper. Contemporary coarse brown paper wrappers, with the 1771 journal in loose bifolia (never sewn) inserted. [2], [2 blank], [11], [1 blank]; 18, [6 blank] pp. Full description

€ 5,950

Original documents of an 18th-century lawsuit against the murderer of a blacksmith in Zoeterwoude

[MANUSCRIPT]. BERGH, Johan van den. Eenige stukken concerneerende criminele procedures in cas d'appel voor het hof geventileerd tusschen den bailluw van Rhijnland contra Pieter Oostenryk in materie van manslag met de ms. schriftuuren.
[Leiden], 1726-1729. Folio. Manuscript, in Dutch, on laid paper, with 2 embossed seals. Later blue paper wrappers. 28 pp. (and 8 pp. blank). Full description

€ 1,750

Extensive correspondence with artists and writers in fin de siècle Europe

[BEVERSEN, Nicolaas Johannes]. [Collection of letters and postcards received by Nicolaas Johannes Beversen].
[Various places in Europe, 1886-1931]. 825¾ pages on 550 leaves. Full description

€ 28,000

On Gothic and Arabic manuscripts in Spanish libraries

BLANCO, Pedro Luis. Noticia de las antiguas y genuinas colecciones canónicas inéditas de la Iglesia Espanola, que de órden del rey nuestro señor se publicarán por su Real Bibliotheca de Madrid, ...
Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1798. 8vo. With some lines printed in Arabic type. Later brown half morocco, gold-tooled spine. XLI [=XXXVIII], [1], 168, [2], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Former King of Naples and Spain in exile in America

[AUTOGRAPH]. BONAPARTE, Joseph. [Letter to Count Pierre François Réal].
Pointe Breeze, New Jersey, 27 September, 1830. 4to (25 x 20 cm). Manuscript letter in French, in brown ink on wove paper (3 sides of folded leaf), signed and dated. [3] pp. Full description

€ 2,250

Rouen Book of Hours: written for the use of a noble woman, with a portrait of the owner

[BOOK OF HOURS]. [Book of Hours - use of Rouen].
Rouen, Normandy, France, ca. 1480. Small 4to (14.3 x 19.3 cm). Latin and French illuminated manuscript on vellum. Ruled in red ink for 14 lines per page (16 in the calendar). Gothic textura, major feasts in calendar in burnished gold, others alternately red or blue. Text pages illuminated with panel borders of flowers and plants on gold, and blue and gold stylised acanthus on a plain ground. Calendar has 24 small square miniatures set into panel borders; major text divisions marked by 12 large miniatures; 2 historiated initials; hundreds of smaller initials and line-fillers throughout. 18th-century French gold-tooled red calf over pasteboards, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. [160] ll. Full description

€ 165,000

Beautifully decorated and heightened with gold 15th-century Dutch manuscript book of hours
from the collection of Viscount Charles van Aefferden

[BOOK OF HOURS - DUTCH]. [15th-century manuscript book of hours, written in Middle Dutch]. [Incipit 1r:] Here du saltste op doen mine lippen en[de] mijn mo[n]t sal voert-kundige[n] dijn lof.
[Southern Netherlands, 15th century]. Small 4to (binding 15.5 x 12 cm; leaves ca. 14.5 x 11.5 cm). Manuscript in Middle-Dutch, written in one column (18 or 19 lines to a page) in a very neat gothic textura script, by one or maybe two hands. The vellum leaves are (lightly) ruled in red ink, the main body of the text is written in black ink. Leaf 1r shows a large 9-line painted initial (blue and white on a golden field) and elaborate green vines and blue, gold, and pink leaves in the margins, all tekst on 1r is written within a blue and gold frame. With 37 3- or 4-line painted initials (gold on a blue or pink field) with the same green, blue, gold, and pink vine-and-leaves decorations in the left margins of the leaves and 7 3-, 4-, or 5-line penwork initials (green, blue, and red) with simple red and green penwork decorations in the left margin of the leaves. Further with numerous 1- and 2-line red and blue initials throughout and occasional 6-line red or blue initials in the left margin of the leaves. 17th- or 18th-century gold- and blind-tooled half mottled calf and sprinkled paper sides, red sprinkled edges. [189] ll. Full description

€ 18,000

German manuscript book of secrets, including an aria with a Moorish merchant selling medicinal tobacco

[MANUSCRIPT - BOOK OF SECRETS - GERMAN]. [Medicinal recipes and incantations].
[Germany?], [ca. 1700?]. Small 8vo (16 x 10 cm). Manuscript in German with occasional Latin phrases, written on laid paper in brown and black ink in at least two German gothic cursive hands (the Latin phrases in Latin hands), a "tetragrammaton" diagram (rectangular with a St Andrews cross rather than star-shaped) with the name of (the archangel) Uriel and a "sator rotas" square. Lacking quire A and bifolium B1.8 (10 ll.?). Brown vellum(?) wrapper, sewn without supports at 3 stations. [4], 17-28, 31-78, [8] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Letter by a member of the Dutch noble family Boreel

[AUTOGRAPH]. BOREEL, G. [Autograph letter, signed, to ''Monsieur'']. 1 p. text. Full description

€ 350

Letter by the famous circumnavigator Bougainville

[AUTOGRAPH]. BOUGAINVILLE, Hyacinthe-Yves-Philippe Potentien, Baron de. [Autograph letter, signed, to Baroness Hyde de Neuville (Anne Marguerite Henriette de Marigny Hyde de Neuville)].
[Brest?, ca. 1820/22]. Folded leaf (20.6 x 16.5 cm). In French. 2 1/2 pp. text. 2 1/2 pp. text. Full description

€ 1,250

Ledger recording involvement in numerous infrastructural projects in Africa, Asia and the Middle East (1952-1955)

BOULTEN, F.A. [Manuscript ledger recording the time spent working on infrastructural projects].
[London?,] 1952-1955. Folio. Lined journal, each page ruled for monthly tallies, with some extra annotations. Contemporary cloth. [48] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Drawings by a member of the CoBrA movement

[DRAWING]. BRANDS, Eugène. [Two manuscript invitations for an exhibition opening, each including an original drawing in colour].
[Amsterdam, 1948]. Each 14.7 x 11 cm. Pen-and-ink drawings; one with blue watercolour and the other with blue and yellow watercolour. 2 pp. Full description

€ 1,000

Crossing the Atlantic between France and Brazil in the 19th-century: a manuscript decree detailing the establishment of an ocean liner service

[BRAZIL]. D'ORLEANS, Louis-Philippe. [MANUSCRIPT]. Ordonnance du Roi qui prescrit la publication de la convention relative à l'établissement d'un service de paquebots à vapeur entre la France et le Brésil.
Neuilly, 21 May 1844. Small folio (31.5 x 20 cm). Written in French in a very neat calligrapher's cursive. Sewn through 2 holes with a blue ribbon, gilt edges. [1], [1 blank], [14], [4 blank] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Manuscript warrant to guarantee the rental of a house to British forces
during the occupation of Mauritius and Bourbon

[MILITARIA - MAURITIUS]. CAMPBELL, Alexander. [Warrant to authorize the occupation of a house for His Majesty's forces in Mauritius and Bourbon].
Port-Louis, 24 June 1813. 4to. Manuscript warrant written in ink on paper, signed. Loosely inserted in a later orange paper folder. [1] leaf. Full description

€ 1,250

Famous Dutch anatomist on the conflicting demands of family life, academic career and scientific pursuits

[AUTOGRAPH]. CAMPER, Petrus. [Autograph letter, signed, to Reinier Arrenberg].
Groningen, 2 February 1773. 4to. Brown ink on laid paper, addressed on the outside and with an armorial red wax seal.
With: (2) [PORTRAIT]. [PUJOS, André]. P. Camper, ...
[Paris, André Pujos, 1786]. 4to. Mezzotint portrait on laid paper. [1], [1 blank, except for the address]; [1] ll. Full description

€ 4,750

67 drawings of horses in harness, drawn by a leading Imperial harness maker as a sample book

[CARRIAGE HORSE TACK]. FÖLSCH, Michael. [Sample book of harness designs and other elaborate and decorative carriage horse tack].
[Vienna, ca. 1790?]. 2 volumes. Oblong small folio (23.5 x 37 cm and 25.5 x 39.5 cm). With 67 pen-and-ink, watercolour and gouache drawings of horses, most highlighted with silver and gold , all signed, most trimmed and mounted on blank leaves ca. 1805. With 2 etchings added at the end of volume 1, executed by Friedrich Leopold Bürde and dated 1812. Volume 1 stab-sewn, volume 2 with the leaves mounted on stubs and sewn through the folds, each with marbled paper wrapped around the spine. In an early 19th-century half tanned sheepskin box in the form of a book, metal hook-clasps. Full description

€ 85,000

2 unpublished botanical manuscripts, with illustrations and descriptions
of 30 flowering plants and 90 trees and shrubs

CARRIÉRE, Jan Ph. Herbarium van bloemen en planten. 1ste deel.
[Watergraafsmeer, ca. 1884]. 1 volume. Small folio (22.5×20.5 cm). With 30 drawings of flowers in watercolour and ink, each with a description in Dutch on a separate leaf. The whole preceded by a title-page, a table of contents (1 page), and an introduction (2 pages). Contemporary black cloth, rebacked, modern endpapers.
With: (2) CARRIÉRE, Jan Ph. Herbarium van naar de natuurgeteekende bladeren, "afdeeling boomgewassen". [Title volume 2:] Herbarium van boombladeren.
Watergraafsmeer, 1884. 3 volumes. Small folio (22.5×20.5 cm). With 90 drawings of tree leaves in watercolour and ink, with a description in Dutch on a separate leaf. The first two volumes each with a title-page, a table of contents (1 page) and an introduction (1 page), and the third volume without preliminaries. Contemporary blue (vols. 1-2) and black (vol. 3) half cloth. The third volume rebacked with original backstrip laid down. Full description

€ 5,500

Obligation contract for plantations in Essequebo and Demerary, signed during the zenith of the colonial plantation economy

CHANGUION, Daniel; Jan Wouter VALKENIER; Cornelis Jacob VAN DER LYN. [Signed negotiation contract dated 1769 for an obligation of 1000 gulden for plantations in Rio Essequebo and Rio Demerary].
Amsterdam, 1 November 1769. Folio (42 x 26.5 cm). Disbound. [3], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 675

Obligation contract for plantations in Essequebo and Demerary, signed during the zenith of the colonial plantation economy

CHANGUION, Daniel; Jan Wouter VALKENIER; Cornelis Jacob VAN DER LYN. [Signed negotiation contract dated 1770 for an obligation of 1000 gulden for plantations in Rio Essequebo and Rio Demerary].
Amsterdam, 6 February 1770. Folio (ca. 26 x 41 cm). Disbound. [3], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 650

Autograph concerning the appointment of a forester

[AUTOGRAPH]. CHAPSAL, Jean-Antoine. [Autograph letter concerning the guard of his woods].
Riom, 9 July 1803. 4to (21 x 33.5 cm). 2 pp. text, 1 blank and the final page with the recipient's address. Formerly folded three times for posting and with traces of a seal. Full description

€ 350

Leave of absence letter written by Van Coehoorn, together with a mezzotint portrait

COEHOORN, Menno van. [Manuscript leave of absence for Vaandrig Papeley].
Halst, 1703. Manuscript leave of absence signed by Menno van Coehoorn, written in brown ink on paper with Coehoorn's letterpress letterhead (26 x 18.5 cm), with a red wax seal, mounted on a large leaf (45.5 x 25 cm), also containing a standard letterpress passport issued by General Johan Theodore, Baron van Friesheim (1642-1733). The latter has (blank) space where one would fill in the name, regiment, the period of absence of the person concerned, and the exact date. With Van Friesheim's woodcut coat of arms at the foot.
With: (2) SCHENK, Pieter. [Portrait of] M[enno]. Bar[on]. van Coehoorn. Gen. van de artell. ...Amsterdam, Pieter Schenk, [ca. 1700?]. Engraved, mezzotint portrait of Van Coehoorn (28 x 18 cm), with at the top the motto: "Ignibus hic aderit" and 4 lines in Dutch below, trimmed along the edges and mounted on paper (34.5 x 23 cm). Full description

€ 2,500

Promissory note for Venetian customs taxes in Damascus in 1488

[DAMASCUS – VENETIAN TAXES]. [Promissory note for Venetian customs taxes on goods from Damascus].
Venice, 22 Feb. / 5 March 1488. Italian notarial document on vellum (44.5 x 16 cm; text block ca. 27 x 14 cm). Written in two fine cursive hands. Full description

€ 7,500

Autograph manuscript giving a captivating eyewitness account of the 1832 siege of Antwerp

[MANUSCRIPT]. [DEFOURNY, Pierre Josephus?]. Korte schets van het voor gevallene gedurende het bombardement van het citadel van Antwerpen.
Saint Omer, 24 April 1833. 4to (19.5 x 16.5 cm). Manuscript in Dutch, written in ink on laid paper with no watermark. 10 pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Manuscript fortification plan of Sluis, signed by Napoleon's future Minister of War

DEJEAN, Jean-François-Aimé. Plan de la ville de l'Ecluse et de l'attaque de cette place par les Français.
[Netherlands, ca. 1800]. Manuscript fortification plan (54 x 49.5 cm) in ink on paper, with watercolour in green and red. With large panel at lower right with keys to important locations and the locations of the troops during the attack and title in large panel at the head. Scale ca. 1:9500. Signed "Vu Dejean". Full description

€ 2,250

The rare book and manuscript collection of a Franco-Russian oriental scholar, diplomat, and secret agent

[DESMAISONS, Jean-Jacques-Pierre]. The collection and research library of Jean-Jacques-Pierre Desmaisons (1807-1873), oriental scholar, diplomat, secret agent, and writer.
Various places, late 15th century to 1873/74. 193 catalogued iems, comprising printed books and manuscripts in 237 volumes. In Arabic, French, Greek, Latin, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Russian, Syriac, and Sanskrit. Full description

€ 1,050,000

Eyewitness account of a 1570 diplomatic mission to the Ottoman court,
with 28 fine original colour drawings and samples of Turkish decorated paper

[DIPLOMATIC MISSION]. BRAECKLE, Jacques de. Memoires du voiage de Constantinople de Jacques de Bracle seigneur de Bassecourt.
[Various places, [1570 or very soon after]. 4to (main text & decorated paper) & 8vo (transcription & drawings) (21.5 x 14.5 cm). Manuscript in French, written in brown ink on paper in a Flemish bastarda gothic hand, with about 26 lines per page. With 8 contemporary half-sheet specimens of Turkish decorated "silhouette" paper (folded to make 16 leaves in 2 quires), a series of 28 drawings in brown ink and coloured gouaches, highlighted in gold (mostly costume figures, some showing the Sultan and other leading figures, others showing anonymous types from various ethnic and religious groups), plus a ca. 1800, transcript of the complete text and biography of the author (with his arms in colour). Modern sheepskin parchment. [2 blank], [34]; [5 blank], [62 incl. a few blank], [1 blank] pp. plus 8 double leaves of decorated paper and [36], [4 blank]; [2], [2 blank] pp. of 18th-century additions. Full description

€ 180,000

1558 declaration signed by the great botanist Dodoens in his capacity as Mechelen churchwarden

[MANUSCRIPT]. DODOENS (DODONAEUS), Rembert. [Declaration of financial and other documents received as incoming churchwarden of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Mechelen].
[Mechelen], 27 December 1558. Oblong 4to (19 x 21.5 cm). A document written in dark brown ink on paper, with the opening words filled in afterwards in light brown ink and the signature in light brown ink. [1] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

40 years of correspondence between two leading orientalists in Russia, often concerning Georgian matters

[AUTOGRAPHS]. DORN, Bernard. [21 autograph letters, signed, to Marie-Félicité Brosset].
Saint Petersburg, ca. 1840-1879. 8vo (letters, mostly 21 x 13.5 cm) and folio (list of publications). Letters in French with an occasional (Persian?) word in Arabic script, written in black ink on paper, some with the address on the outside and one with Dorn's (Persian?) red wax seal in Arabic script.
With: (2) [Manuscript chronological numbered list of 34 publications by Dorn, 1843-1865].
[Saint Petersburg, ca. 1865]. 20 letters [4] pp. each (some including blanks); 1 letter [1, 1 blank] pp.; list of publications [4] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Letter on the Mamluk-Ottoman power struggle in Egypt that would bring Muhammad Ali to power in 1805

[AUTOGRAPH]. DRUMMOND, William. [Letter on the fighting between the Ottomans and Mamluks in Egypt].
Bucharest, 13 December 1803. 4to (23.5 x 18.5 cm). Autograph letter in English, signed, written in brown ink on laid paper. [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

9 letters from one of the leading naval figures of the 19th century

DUPERRÉ, Admiral Guy-Victor. [9 autograph letters, signed, mostly from the writer's time as Préfet maritime in Brest].
Brest, 22 February 1819 - 18 June 1829. Folio and 4to. Autograph letters in French, written in brown ink on single and double leaves of several laid and wove paper stocks.
With: (2) GHÉMAR, Louis-Joseph. Duperré [lithographic portrait].
Brussels, Charles Hen (printed by P. Degobert), dated 1842 by the artist. [4]; [1], [1 blank]; [3], [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank]; [2]; [2] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Unpublished calendar of historical events, especially the birth and death dates of Dutch artists,
in richly gold-tooled morocco by the so-called Rocaille-and-flower bindery

[MANUSCRIPT]. DYLIUS, Joannes, compiler. Dagwyzer der geschiedenissen, kortelyk behelzende, een' aanteekening van verscheidene gedenkwaardige zaaken, op elken dag van 't jaar, door de geheele waereld; bijzonder in de Nederlanden voorgevallen. Benevens de geboorte, en sterfdagen, van hooge, en laage stands persoonen, zo geestelijke als waereldlijke: beroemde helden, geleerde mannen, en kunstenaaren.
[Amsterdam], [frontispiece: 1778]. Narrow 8vo (16.5 x 9.5 cm). Manuscript in brown ink on laid paper, written in Dutch in a neat and clear but minute Latin hand, forming a calendar of historical events from 17 CE to 28 November 1777, with a grey ink and ink-wash allegorical frontispiece title, dated 1778 but signed by the artist "A:C. 1777.", and a title-page in 8 styles of plain and decorated Latin and gothic lettering (signed "Dr. Waller.|scripsit."). Contemporary richly gold-tooled red goatskin morocco, each board with a centrepiece and frame, both built up from separate (mostly floral) stamps, the whole surrounded by a sawtooth roll, the spine with a green morocco label in the 2nd of 6 compartments and each of the others with a central floral stamp and 4 cornerpieces (further with some fillets and rolls), gold-tooled turn-ins and board edges (with a floral roll), altogether 83 or 87 impressions of 7 or 8 stamps, plus 3 rolls and the fillets. It appears to come from what Storm van Leeuwen calls the "Rocaille-and-flower bindery", active ca. 1775-ca. 1812. [8 blank], [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [187], [9 blank] pp. including frontispiece. Full description

€ 4,950

Famous limited edition leaf book "Ege portfolio", containing 15 beautiful oriental manuscript leaves including texts in Arabic, Persian, and Ethiopic

EGE, Otto F (compiler & author of the annotations). [Drop-title:] Fifteen original oriental manuscript leaves of six centuries. [Binding title:] Fifteen original oriental manuscripts.
[Cleveland, Ohio?], [Cleveland Institute of Art or Western Reserve University?], [ca. 1952]. 15 manuscript leaves (in one case a fragment of a scroll) of various formats and sizes, some glazed (see the detailed list of contents for specific dimensions), 7 written on straight-forward laid paper (European and non-European), 6 more problematic (probably all non-European), 1 on straight-forward wove paper (no. 14, supposedly made in Russia) and one on vellum (no. 7), most rubricated and/or decorated in various colours, some decorated or highlighted in gold. Each manuscript leaf is mounted (hinged on one edge to allow access to both sides of the leaf) in a passe-partout (46.5 x 33 cm) and each has a letterpress slip (10 x 18 cm) with explanatory text tipped onto the foot of the passe-partout. The publication has no title-page but includes a letterpress folio leaf that serves as a table of contents and has the drop-title given above (the present copy contains two copies of that contents leaf). The display typeface used in the letterpress leaves (and on the portfolio) is the 1938 Libra by the Dutch designer Sjoerd de Roos, inspired by uncial manuscripts. Publishers original portfolio (48.5 x 34 x 4.5 cm) covered with black cloth with on-lays in black and red on the front and the authors name in white and title in red on the spine, with three pairs of black ties (one on the inside) and a label on the inside of the right black flap giving information about the limited edition: "Edition limited to forty numbered sets of which this is No 33". [1] leaf (plus a duplicate) plus 15 original manuscript leaves mounted in white passe-partouts. Full description

€ 18,000

Falcons brought from Mallorca to Perpignan

[FALCONRY - JAUME III OF MALLORCA]. [Invoice document (albarán) for falconry expenses].
[Mallorca?], Saturday, 12 June [1330s?]. 4to (ca. 165 × 230). Catalan manuscript on cotton paper. 2 written pp. on a bifolium and a single leaf. Full description

€ 18,000

Entomologists in the network of freemasons between American and the French Revolutions

FORSTER, Johann Reinhold. [Letter to an unnamed fellow freemason in Braunschweig, probably Ferdinand, Herzog von Braunschweig-Lünenburg or someone in his inner circle].
Halle (Saale), 9 August 1781. 4to. Autograph letter in German, signed, written in brown ink on laid paper in a clear German hand, with foreign words and names in a Latin hand. [4] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

French fortification manual, probably from northern Germany

[MANUSCRIPT - FORTIFICATION]. Traité de fortification.
[Northern Germany?, ca. 1685/1700?]. 4to & small folio (23 x 18 cm). Manuscript in French, written in black ink on paper in an easily readable cursive hand, with the title in a pen and ink decorated cartouche, about 45 pen and ink drawings (14 full-page and 8 larger folding, 2 of the folding ones in red and black ink with coloured washes, one of the colour folding leaves 36 x 27 cm), mostly showing fortification plans. Contemporary or near-contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine. [1], [3 blank], 164 pp., ll. 165-171, [172], pp. 173-197, 197 [bis], 198-289, [24 blank, partly numbered]. Full description

€ 7,500

Fortification and military architecture, with 32 folding colour drawings (plans, sections, etc.)

[MANUSCRIPT - FORTIFICATION]. Traite des fortifications.
[France, ca. 1730?]. 4 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With 32 folding drawings in black and red ink and grey and coloured washes showing plans, sections and elevations of fortifications and of military buildings, bridges, gates, etc. Near contemporary calf, richly gold-tooled spine. [93], [3 blank]; [249], [11 blank]; [77], [7 blank]; [88] pp. plus 32 folding drawings. Full description

€ 5,950

Fortification ca. 1645, including 16 fine drawings of barriers, tools and other equipment, with 3 other manuscripts on applied mathematics including many line diagrams and 2 sundials

[FORTIFICATION & APPLIED MATHEMATICS]. [4 manuscripts on fortification building, practical mathematics, navigation, the surveying of land and dikes, and sundials].
[The Netherlands, ca. 1645-ca. 1747]. 4 manuscripts. Folio (binding 38 x 22 cm; leaves 33 x 21 cm). 4 manuscripts (mostly in Dutch, but 1 in Latin and another partly in French) written in brown ink on laid paper in 4 different hands (plus a few later additions), the earliest with 16 skilfully executed illustrations of wooden barricades and tools and equipment for building fortifications, the others illustrated with line diagrams including 2 sundials. Loosely inserted in later limp sheepskin parchment (ca. 1794?). Full description

€ 2,250

Italian manuscript criticizing contemporary France in a dialogue between Muhammad and Colbert

[MANUSCRIPT - FRANCE]. Colloquio su'gli affari presenti del 1683 fatto nell'Inferno, tra Maometto, e monsieur Colbert, già ministro di Francia.
[Italy, ca. 1684?]. Small folio (29 x 20.5 cm). Manuscript in brown ink on laid paper in a legible hand. Sewn. [54], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Unpublished illustrated supplement to Duhamel du Monceau's Traité général des pesches

[AUTOGRAPH]. FRANCQ VAN BERKHEY, Jean le. [Autograph letter in French, signed, to Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau.]
Leiden, 10 December 1771. 25 x 20 cm (letter) & 23.5 x 18.5 cm (manuscript). Never bound.
With: [MANUSCRIPT]. [FRANCQ VAN BERKHEY, Jean LE]. Memoires, pour servir a ce que l'illustre auteur de "L'histoire generale des poissons" Monsieur M. Du Hamel de Monceau, solicite a l'egard des morues.
[Leiden, 1771].
A letter and treatise in French, written in dark brown ink on paper in a neat and easily readable hand, the treatise with 9 tipped-in pen and ink illustrations drawn by the author (6.5 x 10.5 to 11.5 x 21.5 cm) and a few small illustrations in the text. [4]; “29” [= 30], [1], [1 blank] pp. plus tipped in illustrations. Full description

€ 25,000

Confirming the death of a former employee of the Compagnie des Indes

[MANUSCRIPT - FRENCH EAST INDIA COMPANY]. Death certificate of a former employee of the French East India Company.
Puducherry (Pondichéry), 2 November 1786. Folio. [2] pp. Full description

€ 750

Splendid manuscript on the state, condition and organization of the French Royal navy in 1732,
from the library of Henri Beraldi

[FRENCH ROYAL NAVY]. [Binding title:] Abregé de la marine du Roy 1732.
[Paris?, 1732]. 13.5×19 cm. Manuscript in brown-black, red and blue ink on vellum, some of the lettering and borders gilt. With a beautiful frontispiece painting in coloured gouaches (14×9.5 cm) pasted on the page facing the opening of the text, showing a small warship at a shipyard in a small harbour being repaired by workmen. Contemporary red morocco, gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled fillets on boards and board edges, richly gold-tooled frame, gilt edges. Frontispiece plus [2], 26 ll., including 2 double and 1 larger folding. Full description

€ 95,000

2 offprints discussing De Frobervilles researches on languages and races in sub-equatorial East Africa,with an autograph letter from De Froberville

FROBERVILLE, Eugène de, and [Louis BOUTON]. Analyse d'un mémoire de M. Eugène de Froberville sur les langues et les races de l'Afrique Orientale au sud de l'equateur.
[Port Louis, Mauritius], [Société dHistoire Naturelle de Maurice], [1846]. Offprint, with its own pagination, from Procès-verbaux de la Société d'Histoire Naturelle de l'Ile Maurice, du 6 octobre 1842 au 28 août 1845, [1846].
With: (2) FLOURENS, Pierre, [Louis-Isidore?] DUPERREY and Etienne SERRES. Rapport sur les races nègres de l'Afrique Orientale au sud de l'équateur, observées par M. de Froberville.
(Colophon: Paris, printed by Bachelier, [1850]). Offprint, with its own pagination, from Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Sciences, XXX (1850).
2 works in 1 volume. Small folio & large 8vo. 19th-century black half morocco, with the blue paper back wrapper of the second offprint bound in. Full description

€ 1,950

Extraordinary manuscript in French containing a manual on gardening and landscape architecture, ready to print

[MANUSCRIPT - GARDENING]. Introduction à la théorie de l'art des jardins.
Ca. 1775-1800. 2 volumes. 4to. Written in several, slightly different neat 18th-century hands. Later red decorated paper over stiff paperboards, spines covered with brown paper, black morocco spine labels with titles and volume numbers in gold. [2], 2, 46 pp., 47-76 ll., 60 pp.; 129, [3], 83, 96, 20 pp. plus 2 ll.with the table of contents. Full description

€ 18,500

Richly illustrated manuscript genealogy of the important Dutch families of Cuylenburgh & Beusichum
and their Dutch, Flemish and Hainaut allied families
with an added manuscript leaf from Arnoldus Buchelius

[MANUSCRIPT - GENEALOGY & HERALDRY - DUTCH]. [Manuscript genealogies of the noble family Cuylenburgh ( vol. 1) and the noble family Beusichum & Cuylenburgh (vol. 2)].
[Utrecht, Culemborg or Beusichem?], ca. 1655-1675, after 1654]. 2 volumes. Large folio. Manuscript in Dutch, written in one hand in a neat, 17th-century hand cursive hand. With 65 coat of arms, almost all of them coloured by hand. Also with some spaces for coats of arms left blank. A loose leaf added to volume with 34 ink-drawn and contemporary hand-coloured small coats of arms with accompanying text written in a cursive 17th-century hand. 19th-century half brown cloth (vol. 1) and red buckram (vol. 2), brown decorated paper sides, titles in gold on the front boards. [4 (plus 1 loose leaf)]; [8] ll. Full description

€ 6,000

Three fortification plans, including a large coloured plan of the fortifications of Neuf-Brisach

[DRAWING - FORTIFICATION]. GENNEP, T.P. van. [Three fortification plans].
[Raamsdonk], 1798. 3 manuscript fortification plans (measuring (ad 1) 58 x 93 cm, (ad 2) 24.5 x 24.5 cm (ad 3) 29.5 x 37 cm) on paper. All signed: T.P. van Gennep, 1798; and one: Raamsdonk, 29 January 1798. Full description

€ 950

Confidential letters on the Baltic Sea trade,
written by the Dutch Republic's resident in Copenhagen to the States General

[BALTIC SEA TRADE]. GOES, Robert. [4 confidential letters by Robert Goes to the registrars of the Dutch States General on the Baltic Sea trade].
[The Netherlands, written 1689-1690 and copied then or soon after]. 4 manuscript letters. Folio. Written in one column in three different 17th-century hands (each letter written, signed and dated in a single hand) on 5 bifolia (2 bifolia for the letter dated 5 December 1689). Folded. [3], [1 blank]; [2]; [2]; [2] ll. Full description

€ 3,250

Signed letter of Hugo de Groot starting proceedings for impoldering of Wijckermeer

[AUTOGRAPH]. GROOT (GROTIUS), Hugo de. [Autograph letter, signed, to the President and councillors of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands].
[Netherlands], 1609. Letter on 2 half-sheets (31 x 20.5 cm). In Dutch. Full description

€ 7,500

Album amicorum of a young Dutch lady

GYSELAAR (GIJSELAAR), Johanna Maria Nicoletta de. Album amicorum.
Gorkum, Leiden, Warmond, Delft, Amsterdam, The Hague, Laarwoude, Zuidlaren and Assen, 1800-1805. 8vo (14.5 x 10 cm). Manuscript album amicorum on paper, with entries in Dutch, French and German. With 3 watercolours of flowers, a small watercolour of roses, and a fine washed pen drawing of a view on a lake with fishermen at work by the owner's niece, J.M. de Gyselaar. Contemporary calf, richly gold-tooled spine and turn-ins, yellow silk endpapers. 192 pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Letter by famous Scottish explorer of the Korean coasts and parts of China

[AUTOGRAPH]. HALL, Basil. [Autograph letter, signed, to Aaron Louis Frédéric Regnault, Baron de la Susse].
Smyrna (Izmir, Turkey), 27 June 1842. 8vo (18 x 11 cm). Manuscript letter in English, in brown ink on one side of an 8vo double leaf. Signed at the foot by Basil Hall. [1], [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 850

Autograph letter, signed, by a member of the Raad van Nederlandsch Indië

[AUTOGRAPH]. HARLOFF, Anton Johan Wouter. [Autograph letter, signed ("A. Harloff"), to Horace Hugo Alexander van Gybland Oosterhoff].
The Hague, 6 May, 1933. Folded double leaf (21.6 x 14). In Dutch. 3 pp text. Full description

€ 350

A manuscript manual on how to construct, load and detonate a mine to undermine fortifications
using exact mathematical calculations

[MANUSCRIPT - MILITARY ENGINEERING - HENNEQUIN, Johan Jacobus]. Twee beknopte handleidingen tot het berekenen der mijnladingen.
(preface:) Grave, 1 July 1828. Folio. Manuscript in a fine legible hand, written in brown ink on paper, with 2 large folding sheets with abstract mathematical figures depicting the range of exploding mines (45 x 67 cm and 54 x 75 cm) in blue/black and red ink, the second partly coloured (red watercolour), and 3 abstract mathematical figures and one table in the text. Contemporary marbled paper boards with a handwritten titleplate. [1], [1 blank], [1], [3 blank], 71, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,800

A summary of the reports on an exercise by the Dutch military engineers,
experimenting with mines to blow up fortifications

[MANUSCRIPT - MILITARY ENGINEERING] HENNEQUIN, Johan Jacobus. Bataillon mineurs en sappeurs. Exercitie polygoon van 1824 en 1825. Uittreksel uit de officiele rapporten der verrigte werkzaamheden welke door den hoogedelen gestrengen heer Abr. Eichholtz luitenant kolonel kommandant van genoemd bataillon opgemaakt en toegezonden zijn geworden aan zijne excellentie den heere Luit. Generaal Baron Krayenhoff, gouverneur van Amsterdam, inspecteur generaal der fortificatien en van het korps ingenieurs de mineurs en sappeurs benevens eenige aantekeningen betrekkelijk de gedaante werkzaamheden.
[preface signed:] Grave, 1 November 1828. Folio. Manuscript written in brown ink on paper in a fine legible hand, with 1 large folding illustration in blue, brown/black and red ink. Contemporary brown marbled paper over boards, manuscript title label mounted on the front board. [4], 15, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

A letter by Dirk van Hogendorp petitioning for postponement of a prison sentence on behalf
of the mother of the convicted poor servant boy to an Amsterdam solicitor

HOGENDORP, Dirk van. [Autograph letter by Dirk van Hogendorp to the Amsterdam solicitor J. de Vries jr.].
[Amsterdam], 12 July 1833. 8vo (ca. 19,5 x 22,7 cm). Text within a black border, which does not continue along the lower edge of the sheet. [4] pp. Full description

€ 750

Manuscript course in fortification, with 19 large folding drawings (plans and sections) in colour

[FORTIFICATION]. HOOFF, Cornelis Christiaan van. Grondbeginselen der vestingbouw, volgens de verschillende manieren van versterken van Pagan, Vauban en Coehoorn. Geconstrueerd getekend en beschreven door C C van Hooff.
[The Hague], 1796. Folio. With a calligraphic title-page and 19 folding drawings (mostly about 32.5 x 51 cm, 6 longer: 78 to 138 cm, the longest assembled from 2 pieces before drawing) with 45 numbered figures, showing fortification plans and sections in black and red ink with coloured washes. With an 1857(?) photograph of a (ca. 1795?) miniature oval portrait of the author and 4 documents concerning the manuscript and the author's family (1933-1965), all loosely inserted. Contemporary half, tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. [1], [1 blank], 81, [1 blank], [1], [3 blank] pp. plus 19 integral blank ll. with drawings tipped onto them. Full description

€ 12,000

Detailed account of horses by a Dutch cavalry officer who served Prussia against Napoleon Bonaparte,
with 31 beautiful watercolour drawings (30 in colour) showing 32 horses

[HORSES - MILITARY]. Anecdoten van paarde kenners, paarde liefhebbers, ruijters en ross-kammers. Naar waarheid en eijge ondervinding opgesteld. Door een gepensioneerd cavallerie officier.
[The Netherlands, ca. 1815]. Folio (38 x 24 cm). Manuscript on paper written in brown ink in a readable Latin hand, with the title on p. 72, illustrated with 30 small watercolour drawings of horses mounted on the leaves (mostly about 8.5 x 11 cm), and a washed pen drawing with 5 caricature figures before a monument (9.5 x 16 cm), mounted above the dedication. Half vellum (1930s?), gold-tooled spine. [4 blank], 248, 251-254, 257-267, [9 blank] pp. Full description

€ 17,500

Two illustrated standard works on Dutch painters,
annotated by the Belgian art connoisseur Francois-Jean-Joseph Mols

HOUBRAKEN, Arnold. De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen. ... Den tweeden druk.
The Hague, Johannes Swart, Cornelis Bouquet, Mattheus Gaillard, 1753. With engraved frontispiece, engraved author's portrait and 47 engraved plates bound in a separate plates volume.
With: (2) GOOL, Johan van. De nieuwe schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en schilderessen: ...
The Hague, for the author, 1750-1751. With engraved author's portrait and 22 engraved plates (1 folding). Lacking engraved frontispiece. 2 works (in 3 and 2 parts), bound in 11 text volumes (8vo interleaved with 4to, 25.5 x 20 cm) and 2 plate volumes (8vo interleaved with small folio, 28 x 20.5 cm). Uniform late 18th-century half sheepskin parchment (ad 1) and half vellum (ad 2). Full description

€ 12,500

Humboldt asks to borrow a map from the Paris Académie des Sciences

[AUTOGRAPH]. HUMBOLDT, Alexander von. [Autograph letter to Le Chevalier de Rossel, director of the Dépôt des Cartes of the Paris Académie des Sciences].
[Paris, 1818?]. 4to (23 x 18.5 cm) Letter in black ink on laid paper, in Humboldt's somewhat cramped but still legible hand. Formerly folded for posting, with the address written on the otherwise blank final page and with traces of a paper seal. [1], [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Beautifully illuminated and finely lettered manuscript altar canon on three wall panels

[ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT - ALTAR CANON]. Accipiendo in manibus hostiam dicat[!].... Initium Sancti Evangelii secundum Joannem. ... Cibavit illum dominus pane vitæ et intellectus.
[Belgium?], [ca. 1790?]. Three illuminated manuscript wall panels in matching style, forming a three-part altar canon lettered in blue and red ink on parchment (one 47.5 x 57 cm & two 31 x 22 cm; image sizes 46 x 54.5 cm & 29.5 x 21 cm), the larger stretched over a wooden frame and each of the smaller two over a wooden panel. All three panels meticulously and finely lettered in the style of roman printing types with 1 line in italic capitals, all 12 initials and some of their decoration in gold. All three panels richly illuminated around and between the text blocks with a gold background and extensive gold highlights, the illumination including decorated cartouches. The principal scenes at the head (miniatures in a wide variety of colours) show the Last Supper, Saint John the Evangelist and Christ washing his apostles feet; the central scenes at the foot (ink and ink wash drawings, probably emblematic, that on the large panel in grey and those on the small panels in red) show a lamb and cross on an altar, 4 standing figures with long staffs around a table with a platter (of bread?: some of the figures are eating something) and herald angels before a kneeling figure (it doesnt look like a shepherd or the Virgin Mary). Full description

€ 16,000

12 leaves from an incunable with an autograph letter by William Blades

[INCUNABLE - GERMANY]. [12 leaves from: Statuta synodalia herbipolensia].
[Würzburg, Georg Reyser, ca. 1486]. Folio. Printed in red and black in rotunda type (32 lines; printed area: 18 x 12 cm; type: 112a). With illustrations cut from 19th- or 20th-century reproductions of early woodcuts (ca. 21 x 14 cm) pasted on the front (Annunciation) and back pastedown (Christophorus, with the year "cccc xx tercio").. Later bound in two leaves from a 13th-century vellum theological manuscript, rubricated and decorated with alternating red and blue initials with penwork. [12] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

Documenting the Indian caste system and the Indian social norms and practices from a Christian point of view

[FRENCH INDIA - MANUSCRIPT]. Des castes Indiennes.
Karaikal, 11 April [1743]. 4to (ca. 24 x 18.5 cm). Manuscript written in dark brown ink on beige laid paper. Blue mottled stiff paper wrappers. [23], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 4,750

First-hand account of the British military in India's Northwest

[PHOTOGRAPHY - INDIA]. [W. RAHN (photographer).] [Album with photographs of the Tirah Expedition].
Including:
- Key [manuscript identifying sitters in 1 photograph in the album]. 2 loose leaves.
- [Manuscript list of captions to 10 photographs in the album]. 1 leaf.Kirkee (Pune, India), Sappers and Miners' Press, [1898]. Folio album (40 x 33 cm). A photo album with 53 photographic prints on 12 paperboard leaves, hinged to stubs with 3 cords. Including 9 large albumen prints from 21 x 26.5 cm to 13.5 x 29 cm, 43 gelatin silver prints from 12 x 18 cm. to 9 x 10.5 cm., and a loosely inserted large albumen print 21 x 28.5 cm on a similar paperboard support. Contemporary cloth with closing straps. Manuscripts loosely inserted in the album.
(2) PARK, Superintendent. 1898. Catalogue of photographs by Sergeant A.J. Clarke R.E. taken during Tirah Expedition, 1897-1898.
[Kirkee (Pune, India), Sappers and Miners' Press, 1898]. Small folio (22 x 14.5 cm), [4] pp. With a lithographed title-page. Loosely inserted in the album. Full description

€ 8,750

Journal of accounts of a Flemish cloth-dyeing factory 1734-1759

[MANUSCRIPT]. JOFFROY, Joannes Baptista (Jean-Baptiste). Daegelyksche aenteekening van alle de goederen te verwen komende bij Joannes Baptista Joffroy begonst 1734.
[Mechelen (Malines, Belgium), 1 April 1734-31 August 1759]. Folio (32.5 x 21 cm). Manuscript journal of accounts in dark brown ink on paper, written in Dutch in an upright gothic hand, with each page ruled in double and single lines to make 4 or 5 columns and up to 22 rows, decorated with hundreds of pen flourishes, three forming pictures of birds as tailpieces and with a decorative cross to begin 1750 (some other years with a simpler cross), a couple headings with additions in red. Contemporary vellum. [268] pp. Full description

€ 3,750

Calligraphic copybook by a 14-year-old Dutch boy in 1761

JONG, Jacobus de. Geschriften.
Noordwijk-Binnen, 1761. Oblong folio (21 x 33 cm). Manuscript calligraphic copybook in brown ink on paper, with a calligraphic title-page followed by sample texts (mostly from the Old and New Testament) in Dutch in a roundhand script with decorative flourishes, and verses by Jacob Cats on the outside of the first and last leaves, the last illustrated with a penwork father, son and a large fish eating a small fish. Side-stitched, with the first leaf and last leaf serving as wrappers. [31] ll. Full description

€ 1,750

Letter from the VOC's governor of Ceylon

[AUTOGRAPH]. KRAYENHOFF, Cornelis Dionysius. [Letter to Thomas de Saint Laurent].
Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), 30 December 1783. 4to (21×17 cm). Autograph letter in French, signed, written in dark brown ink on paper in a Latin hand. In a later paper folder. [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

A leading French Armenologist studies Armenian and Arabic manuscripts at the Bibliothèque Nationale

[AUTOGRAPH]. LANGLÈS, Louis Mathieu. [6 autograph letters, signed, mostly to Antoine-Jean de Saint-Martin].
[Paris], 7 April [1820?]-13 January 1824. 8vo & 4to. Signed autograph letters in brown ink on laid paper, the 1824 letter on a letterpress "Bibliothèque du Roi" letterhead with the royal arms. 7 letters, each written on 1 side of a single leaf. Full description

€ 3,500

Autograph of La Pérouse requesting 400 metres of canvas for his schooner

[AUTOGRAPH]. LA PÉROUSE, Jean-François de Galaup de. [Short autograph note signed by La Pérouse].
[At sea, ca. 1781-1785]. Short manuscript note in ink on a small sheet of laid paper (12 x 13.5 cm). Full description

€ 22,500

Manuscript table of the provisions on board the French frigate “Amphitrite”

LAPLACE, Cyrille Pière Théodore. La frégate de Roi L'Amphitrite. États des consommations faites pendant le mois de Décembre 1824 et que restent abord le 1e Janvier 1825.
[On board, December 1824-1 January 1825]. Manuscript table in brown ink on a whole sheet of laid paper (40 x 52 cm), with the title at the head and signed at the foot right by Laplace. Folded twice. Full description

€ 3,500

Drilling the Austrian Imperial infantry, with 49 manuscript formation plans in colour

LEEUWEN, Engelhard August Baron van. Plans des neu herrauss gegebene Exercittii nach den dermahligen Kayserl: Königl: kriegs Fuss Volck eingerichtet. Herausgegeben im Jahr 1765. Zugehörig Titl. Herrn Obrist Wacht M[ei]st[er] Baron v[on]: Engelhard.
Austria, 1769[?]. Oblong 4to (18.5 x 23 cm). With title and the explanation of the key letters used in the plans written in red, the key to the colour coding in the troop formations in 8 colours, and 49 (of 55) numbered colour-coded plans of infantry exercises. Each text leaf and each plan (except no. 26) in a frame of rules, nos. 2-35 in red, the rest in black. Plans 1, 24, 32, 33, 42, and 46 have been torn out, in 2 cases leaving a small piece of the drawing. Contemporary mottled tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. [3], 16 ll. plus 49 (of 55) numbered plans. Full description

€ 5,000

Document from the French Revolution by the Duke of Danzig

LEFEBVRE, François-Joseph. Mémoire pour retraitte.
[Valnheim], 26 November 1793. Signed manuscript letter, in French, written in brown ink in two columns on one side of a folio leaf (32 x 20.5 cm). Full description

€ 650

96 letters from Dutch diplomats throughout Europe, 1715-1729

[LETTERS - DIPLOMATIC]. [Official contemporary copies of incoming diplomatic correspondence to the Dutch government in The Hague from Dutch ambassadors, envoys, diplomatic residents and others in Vienna, Graz, Schaffhausen, Turin, Madrid, Paris, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Moscow, Cologne, Frankfurt, Dresden, Regensburg, Warsaw, Grodno, Maastricht, The Hague, Brussels and Ostend].
[The Hague], letters dated 26 January-17 December 1715 and 7 November 1725-22 November 1729. Folio (32.5 x 20.5 cm). 96 letters clearly written in dark brown ink on paper, 84 in Dutch and 12 in French, mostly in a Latin hand (the Dutch ones from 1715 in a semi-gothic hand). Loose leaves in a modern portfolio. [96] letters ([138] written pp. on [97] ll.). Full description

€ 8,500

Highly detailed and carefully executed 18th-century Dutch military manuscript and handbook

LIERNUR, Johan Friederich. Memorie boeck of verzaameling van alderhande soorten van lijsten, in den dienst gebruiklijk sijnde, of geweest hebbende; Staat der sterkte der trouppen van den staat, met hunner betaalinge etc.; Ranglijst van de generaaliteijt, en staffs officieren; Eenige resolutien en ordres, modellen van briefjes enz.; Staat, detail en dienst van 't garnisoen, en de trouppes in S.G. Haage; Mitsgaaders eenige plans van ordre de bataille en campeeringe, en modell, van roosters.
[The Hague?], ca. 1757. 4 parts in 1 volume. 4to. Written in Dutch in a neat 18th-century hand in one column, also with many tables. With a hand-drawn title-page in washed ink, with the title in a cartouche, showing a court scene with an armed soldier before Pallas Athena on the throne, the latter helding the motto "Scientia artis rei militaris", and at the head of the page a hand-coloured freemasonry symbol. Also with 4 hand-drawn half-titles in washed ink with the titles in different cartouches. Also with 3 full-page plans showing battle lines, including those for the battles of Muhlberg (1730) and Oosterhout (1732), 2 folding plans for the military camps of both the infantry and cavalry and many tables. 18th-century mottled calf, gold-tooled frame on both boards with gold-stamped fleur-de-lis in the corners, gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled board edges, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. [6], 174 pp. including some blanks. Full description

€ 5,000

British admiral's eye witness report of Arab slavers activity in Zanzibar

LLOYD, Rodney Maclaine. Reporting proceedings on detached boat service.
Zanzibar, 9 July 1886. Folio (ca. 20 x 32 cm), with the Britannia watermark. Signed manuscript letter. Loose single sheet. [1] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Unpublished thesis on the Irish monasteries in the 5th and 6th centuries by a female student

LORCIN, Aimée. La civilisation monastique irlandaise aux Ve et VIe siècles.
Lyon, [unpublished typescript], 1944-1945. Folio (27 x 20.5 cm). With 1 duplicated manuscript map. Stiff brown paper wrappers, black cloth spine. [1], IX, 159 ll. plus 8 loose ll. with additions and corrections. Full description

€ 650

Detailed eye-witness reports of a voyage around the world as it unfolded, 1847-1851

LORGE, Louis Anne Paul de Durfort Civrac, Comte de. [46 letters].
Chili, Macao, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Batavia, Ceylon, Calcutta, Delhi, etc., 1847-1851. 8vo & 4to. 46 autograph letters, mostly signed, written during a voyage around the world by the Comte de Lorge, to his father, the Duc de Lorge. Loose letters in clear plastic sleeves in a modern notebook. Full description

€ 9,500

Congratulations to Ferdinand II, king of Two Sicilies,
and the Archduchess Maria Therese of Austria on the birth of their eldest son

[AUTOGRAPH]. LUIGIOS, Maria [= MARIA KAROLINE LUISE CHRISTINE OF AUSTRIA?]. [Signed letter to Ferdinand II, king of Two Sicilies].
Innsbruck, 13th August 1838. 25 x 20 cm. Signed manuscript letter in brown ink on paper in Italian, with signature 'Maria Luigios'. [1], [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 500

Private letter to a friend, by the former governor-general of India, John Macpherson

[AUTOGRAPH]. MACPHERSON, John. Letter to a friend on his governmental system.
Brompton Grove, 21 September 1814. 4to. Folded. [4] pp. Full description

€ 950

The most important British citizens of Madras gathered in one document

STEEL, Scudamore Winde (subject). To Major General Sir Scudamore Winde Steel K. C. B. late commander of the forces in Pegue &c ....
Madras, 10 April 1856. Manuscript in ink on a large single sheet of vellum (ca. 62 x 73 cm). With the hand drawn coat-of-arms of Scudamore Winde Steel in ink at the head of the text and with 106 signatures of British residents of Madras at the foot of the text. Folded. [1] leaf. Full description

€ 3,500

Crucial letter in the life of Maria Malibran, the greatest opera star of her time

MALIBRAN, Maria. [Autograph letter, signed, from Maria Malibran to Mr. Colladon].
Norwich, 23 September [1830]. 4to. Written in ink on paper. Disbound. Gilt edges. 4 pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Wonderful captain’s logbook of a journey from Manila to Indonesia

[MANUSCRIPT - MAPS - INDONESIA]. [Suitte du journal depuis le départ de Manille NIII 1755].
1755. Manuscript of 24 pages, 6 printed maps on cardboard. [24] pp. Full description

€ 3,750

Four interesting original signed letters by the French explorer Hyacinthe de Bougainville

[AUTOGRAPH LETTERS]. BOUGAINVILLE, Hyacinthe Yves Philippe Pottentien, baron de. [Autograph letters by Hyacinthe de Bougainville].
[France], 18[35?], 1837, 18[38], and 1845. (1) 17.7 x 12 cm; (2) 17.7 x 12 cm; (3) 15.6 x 10 cm; (4) 20.4 x 13.2 cm. All four letters written in French, in an early 19th century cursive in brown ink. With the blind-stamped initials "H.B" in the top right corner of each letter. Including:
(1) [Autograph letter from Hyacinthe de Bougainville to Gaspar, baron Gourgaud].
[France], Saturday 26 September 18[35?].
(2) [Autograph letter from Hyacinthe de Bougainville to Madame Delpeche].
[France], 25 March 1837.
(3) [Autograph letter from Hyacinthe de Bougainville to a "Cher Ami"].
[France], 13 April 18[38?].
(4) [Autograph letter from Hyacinthe de Bougainville to a "Cher Ami" and his best "Comrade"].
[France], 16 December 1845.
Folded. [1], [1 blank]; [2], [1 blank] [1]; [3], [1 blank]; [2], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,750

Nice collection of 131 flags, banners standards and crests made in Japan

[MANUSCRIPT - FLAGS - JAPAN]. "All the flags from 1893".
Japan, 1893. Collection of drawings of 131 flags, banners etc. on separate leaves of varying sizes, most of them coloured.
With: (2) [MANUSCRIPT]. [Decorated Japanese rice-paper].
Japan, [1893?]. Ten sample leaves 928 x 38 cm) of so-called rice paper (actually cut in small sheets from the pith of the rice-paper plant, Tetrapanax papyrifer), decorated with varying designs, like flowers, fans and traditional Japanese dolls.
19th-century wrappers of thick handmade Japanese paper, reinforced with straps of paper containing Japanese characters and blue and red stamps; with the title of ad 1 in Japanese characters on the front wrapper. [131]; [10] ll. Full description

€ 5,000

Manuscript astronomical manual on the motions of the heavens

[MANUSCRIPT - ASTRONOMY]. Plain astronomy. Manuscript volume of notes on practical astronomy and mathematics.
[England?, ca. 1777/1781?]. 4to. Manuscript volume of notes on practical astronomy and mathematics in English, written in ink on Dutch paper with a Maid of Dordrecht watermark without countermark. The leaves are numbered from the front, 101 and 26 leaves of text and diagrams, 39 blank leaves in the middle, last 26 leaves in reverse order, illustrated with several astronomical and mathematical diagrams, including one of a solar system. Late 18th-century half calf, marbled sides. 101, 26, [39 blank], 26 ll. Full description

€ 4,750

Manuscript calendar for calculating the date of Easter 1400-1440, used and perhaps produced in Auxerre

[MANUSCRIPT - CALENDAR]. [Calendar for calculating the date of Easter].
[Auxerre, France?], [ca. 1400?]. Small 4to. Latin manuscript in red, brown and black ink on paper, written in an upright French gothic semi-cursive hand with short texts in a textura hand, with 6 round diagrams for calendrical calculations containing text and 2 more with no text filled in. Leaves A4-A6 (6 pages) written in two columns contain 12 tables for the 12 months (January to December) providing data for each day of the month, and the manuscript includes further data for calendrical calculations in several more rectangular tables. The final blank leaf has holes pricked to form a circle, but no diagram has been drawn using them. Sewn through 3 holes in a (ca. 1550?) paper wrapper, the whole in paperboards lined with printed waste paper from a (17th-century?) Latin Breviary. [18], [2 blank] pp. (pp. 2 & 5 also blank). Full description

€ 40,000

Extraordinary writing masters copy-book (1634-1643) with 9 knotwork decorative initials A-I/J (9-13 cm) with stylized figures, inspired by mediaeval forms

[MANUSCRIPT - CALLIGRAPHY - FRENCH]. [Writing masters copy-book].
[Liège?], 1634-1643?. Oblong 4to (17.5 x 21.5 cm). A manuscript writing masters copy-book in French, written on the rectos only, mostly in black ink on paper, each of the first 9 leaves beginning with a very large (9-13 cm) decorated initial drawn in pen and ink, displaying knotwork (sometimes making heart forms) and extensive stylized pictorial elements - both reminiscent of mediaeval Keltic examples - and coloured by a contemporary hand: A-I/J in alphabetical order, and the same letter of the alphabet written below the initial in several styles of gothic capitals and usually also minuscules (A-E in black, F-I/J in red). The two remaining leaves, also in an upright gothic cursive, show an 8-line model text (a letter to a friend, Antoine van Rosendal, dated from Liège, 5 June 1643) with a 2-line minuscule alphabet (beginning with a capital A) below and several other As separately; and a complete capital and minuscule (24-letter) alphabet, including W (6 lines); both with penwork flourishes, including (in the former) a round spiral incorporating 6 faces in profile. Sewn through 3 holes in a contemporary sheepskin parchment wrapper. Kept in a 20th-century French curl-marbled paperboard folder, in a matching marbled slipcase. [11], [10 blank] ll., the 10 blanks including 3 small fragments. Full description

€ 12,500

Beautiful examples of 18th-century penmanship by 2 Dutch brothers

[MANUSCRIPT - CALLIGRAPHY]. WALBEEK, Willem and Frans WALBEEK. [Three calligraphic prize books by Willem and Frans Walbeek].
Warmond (near Leiden), the Netherlands, 1752-1756.
Comprising:
(1) WALBEEK, Willem. Prijs boek. Inhoudende verscheyde geschriften.
Warmond, 1752.
(2) WALBEEK, Willem. Prijs-boek. Inhoudende eenige schriften.
Warmond, 1753.
(3) WALBEEK, Frans. Prijs boek.
Warmond, 1756.
Three oblong albums (ca. 35 x 44 cm). With the same hand drawn illustration of 2 putti holding a laurel wreath on the title-pages of ads 2 and 3, and an ink drawing of a compass (drawing instrument, or other measuring instrument) as part of a calligraphic exercise also in ads 2 and 3. Contemporary marbled paper wrappers. [12]; [1 blank], [13]; [10] ll. Full description

€ 3,500

based on the work of two important French 18th-century cartographers">Cartographic manuscript to teach engineer-geographers to "centrer" (bisect?) angles and triangulate,
based on the work of two important French 18th-century cartographers

[MANUSCRIPT - CARTOGRAPHY]. Memoire sur la manière de centrer les angles et de calculer les triangles selon la direction de la méridienne et de la perpendiculaire à l 'usage des ingenieurs-géographes.
[France, ca. 1750/99]. Folio. Manuscript in French on thick paper, written in a neat 18th-century cursive hand. With 5 manuscript plates, showing 14 geometrical figures. Sewn in quires and stored loose in a portfolio covered with grey paper, grey cloth ties, paper label on the front board. [2 blank], [1], [1 blank], 61, [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,750

Short manuscript descriptions of various birds, animals, plants and trees found in the forests of Ceylon (Sri Lanka)

[MANUSCRIPT - CEYLON - NATURAL HISTORY]. Schets van eenige zoorten van dieren welke in de bosschen omstreeks Cijlon gevonden worden.
[Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and the Netherlands?], [18th or 19th century?]. 8vo (16.5 x 10.5 cm). Written in a late 18th-century or early 19th-century cursive in French and Dutch.
With: (2) [MANUSCRIPT - FRENCH & DUTCH POEMS AND SONGS]. [Quelques Chansons]. Contemporary decorated paper wrappers. [28] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Muslim prayerbook from Quanzhou, glosseed in xiaojing script

[MANUSCRIPT - CHINESE MUSLIM PRAYERBOOK]. Al-salamu 'alayka. [= Peace be unto you].
Quanzhou, 990 AH [= 1582 CE]. Folio (ca. 20.5 x 30 cm). Arabic manuscript on paper. Black sini script in nine lines with red verse markers, titles in red, glossing in black. With beautifully illuminated full-page 'Unwan with Chinese influence on designs, in gold, blue, red, green, and black. 18th-century cloth and paper wrappers. 46 ll. Full description

€ 35,000

A remarkable manuscript service book for the divine offices on parchment,
with seven eye-catching illustrations

[MANUSCRIPT - SERVICE BOOK - DIVINE OFFICES]. Ordine da osservarsi nell'oratorio di Santa Maria di Passione, circa gli Essercicii Spirituali delle feste cavato dalla Regola maggiore.
[Milan], [18th-century]. Folio (27,5 x 18,5 cm). With 5 full-page and 2 half-page, hand-painted religious illustrations and 9 hand-painted initials on a blue background, heightened with gold and silver. 18th-century gold- and blind-tooled parchment, each board with a blind ornamental centre-piece ornament in a blind-tooled frame, in a larger frame of gold fillets, with a gold flower in each of the 6 spine compartments. [1 blank], [1], 66 pp. Full description

€ 14,000

Travelling through Germany and Russia in the 19th century

[MANUSCRIPT - DUTCH]. TROMP, C.H. [Collection of an illustrated manuscript diary, and travel journals, including some views and photographs of Russia and Germany].
[The Netherlands, 1824-1911]. Manuscript on paper in Dutch. Preserved in a card-board box (27 x 23.5 x 7 cm), covered with marbled paper. Full description

€ 3,500

Romantic imaginary voyage in French verses

[MANUSCRIPT - FRENCH - IMAGINARY VOYAGE]. Voyage imaginaire. Poème. Chant 1-4.
Adegeest (manor house at Voorschoten, between The Hague and Leiden), 1853. Large 4to (27 x 21.5 cm). Loose quires in cover: marbled boards joined together by a spine of red painted sheepskin, green ties. [2], V, 81, 120, VI, 132, 131 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Manuscript compilation of texts on Arabian horses

[MANUSCRIPT - HORSES - HAIR]. Chevaux. Observations sur les chevaux Arabes du désert. ... Cheveux.
[France, ca. 1794-ca. 1813]. Folio. Disbound. [10], [2 blank], [3], [1 blank], [4], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

a summary of Ibn Sina's famous Canon of Medicine">Illustrated manuscript of the Qanunceh, or "small canon":
a summary of Ibn Sina's famous Canon of Medicine

[MANUSCRIPT - IBN SINA (AVICENNA)]. [Mahmud ibn Muhammad ibn Umar AL-GAMINI and others]. [Qanunceh (= Small canon)].
[colophon: 1279 AH (= 1862 CE)]. (ca. 17.5 x 10.5 cm). Manuscript on paper, written in a cursive, Persian-Arabic script in 15 to 23 lines per page. With 1 leaf containing 8 hand coloured illustrations, with captions, of medical instruments (4 instruments on respectively the recto and verso of leaf 26). Contemporary brown calf, with blind-stamped decorations. [29] ll. Full description

€ 28,000

Autograph letter from the New Zealand naturalist Thomson to fellow carcinologist
and renowned French zoologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards

[MANUSCRIPT LETTER - NEW ZEALAND]. THOMSON, George Malcolm. [Manuscript letter from George Malcolm Thomson to Alphonse Milne-Edwards].
High school, Dunedin, New Zealand, 30 August 1882. 20.5 x 12.5 cm. Written in a neat cursive in brown ink on laid paper made in Scotland watermarked "A Cowan & Sons Ivory". Folded. [2], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Two signed autograph letters and a note by one of the most famous explorers
of the first half of the 19th century

[MANUSCRIPT LETTERS]. DUMONT D'URVILLE, Jules Sébastien César. [Autograph letter from Dumont D'Urville to Pierre Adolphe Lesson].
Paris, 19 September 1829. 13 x 10.2 cm.
With:
(2) DUMONT D'URVILLE, Jules Sébastien César. [Autograph letter from Dumont D'Urville to Mr. Rousset].
Paris, 14 December 1841. 21 x 13 cm.
(3) [DUMONT D'URVILLE, Jules Sébastien César]. [Autograph note by Dumont D'Urville].
[France?, first half of the 19th century?]. 8 x 10 cm.
Written in French, in a neat early 19th century cursive in brown ink. Folded. Ad 1: [1], [2 blank], [1]; ad 2: [1], [2 blank], [1]; ad 3: [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 6,000

Manuscript letter by the director of the VOC fort at Jaffanapatnam (Ceylon, now Jaffna, Sri Lanka) to his uncle, a VOC and city official in Rotterdam, asking for support

[MANUSCRIPT LETTER - VOC - CEYLON]. [Mattheus SCHENKENBERG]. [Contemporary copy of a letter dated 3 January 1699 from Mattheus Schenkenberg to his uncle Harmen van Soelen].
[Jaffanapatnam, Ceylon, 3 January 1699]. Folio (33 x 21 cm). The Dutch letter is written in a neat late 17th-century cursive hand in brown ink. Folded and kept together by an orange, white and blue piece of string in the left margin (1.5 cm from the edge of the leaves, in the middle). [5], [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

17th-century illustrated German manuscript containing the statutes
of the German Teutonic Order as approved by the Grand Master

[MANUSCRIPT - GERMAN & LATIN - HERALDRY - LITURGY]. MAYER, Lieven. (Drop-title on f. 5r:) Der hochen Deutschen Ritterordens Buech ...
[Germany], [after 1606, perhaps before 1618]. 4to. Manuscript in German and Latin on paper, written in a 17th-century hand. With 3 heraldic crosses showing the coats of arms of the Teutonic Order (a black Maltese cross) and 4 drawings showing costumes of several members of the order, all executed in watercolour highlighted with eggwhite. 20th-century mottled sheepskin, sewn on 5 supports, each board with a frame of blind double fillets crossing at the corners, with blind double fillets across the spine, title stamped in green roman capitals in the 3rd of 6 compartments. [5], 129 ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Early 18th-century Dutch student's manuscript on navigation and mathematics

[MANUSCRIPT - NAVIGATION - DUTCH]. De schat kamer ofte de konst der stuurlieden.
[The Netherlands], [ca. 1702/13?]. Folio (33.5 x 21.5 cm). With more than 300 mathematical figures and illustrations, mainly full-, half- and quarter-circle diagrams. The Dutch text is written in a clearly legible, 18th-century cursive hand in brown ink. Contemporary flexible paperboards. [213], [4 blank], [1] pp. Full description

€ 3,850

Previously unknown Portuguese description of the Paraguay River,
at the time of the dispute over Portuguese and Spanish frontier in the region

[MANUSCRIPT - PARAGUAY RIVER]. Discripças do Rio Paraguay en 1794. [Description of the river Paraguay in 1794].
[Paraguay and/or Brazil], [ca. 1794]. 34 x 22 cm. Written in brown ink in a very legible late 18th-century cursive. Stitched through 2 single holes, only one remains intact. [1], [1 blank], [12], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

The famous case of the baker of Madrigal who pretended to be King of Portugal

[MANUSCRIPT - PORTUGAL]. MARTÍNEZ DE HERRERA. Relacion del sucesso, prissiones, y castigos de Gabriele Espinosa, que se fingiò Rey D. Sebastian de Portugal, y de Fray Miguel de los Santos, religiosso agustino portugues, vicario del convento de mo[n]jas augustinas de Nra. Sra. de Gracia de la villa de Madrigal... confessor del dicho Rey d. Sebastian y de ... Ana de Austria (hija del Sr. D. Juan de Austria).
(In the text:) Seville, 1684. 4to. With the title written in brown and red ink within a hand-drawn frame and some bird-figures below the last line on the title-page (in red ink). The text is written in a fine 17th-century hand, in brown ink. Contemporary limp vellum, with a manuscript title on the spine and remnants of ties. [1], [1 blank], [124], [6 blank] ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Charming 16mo German manuscript prayerbook in contemporary blind-tooled pigskin

[MANUSCRIPT - PRAYERBOOK]. [1st rubric:] Form zu betten unser liebe[n] frawen mantel, Gebet. [incipit:] Cegrüest seiestu o süesse aller heiligste junckfraw maria ...
[Ravensburg?], [ca. 1670]. Small 16mo in 8s (10 x 8.5 x 4 cm; leaf: 9 x 7.5 cm). German manuscript in red and black ink on paper, written in an upright, semi-cursive gothic hand, with so-called lombardic initials in red, rubricated throughout. With 11 lines per page, text block 7 x 5.5 cm. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over bevelled wooden (beechwood?) boards, sewn on 3 double supports, In total more than 100 impressions of about 9 stamps. Further with 2 strap fastenings with brass clasps (each with an owners(?) stamp: 1.5 mm roman capital initials "LH" above a 3 mm head in profile, facing right), catchplates and anchor plates, plain headbands, blue edges. With 27 mm roman capital initials "BR" in brown ink on the foot edge. [423], [3 blank] pp. plus 3 endleaves at the front and 5 at the back. Full description

€ 8,500

Contemporary manuscript from Córdoba on the life of Juan de Santiago,
with an extra paragraph not present in the printed editions of the work

[MANUSCRIPT - SPANISH]. [MORALES, Vincent]. Compendio de la exemplar vida, y santa muerte, [d]el p[adre] Juan de S[an]tiago...
[Córdoba?], ca. 1770. 8vo. With a large engraving of Juan de Santiago on the second leaf and a pen drawing on page 102. Contemporary limp parchment. [4], "159" [= 162] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

The Ottoman Turkish calendar of histories: a rare, 18th-century manuscript of one of Katip Çelebi's most important works

[MANUSCRIPT - TURKISH]. ÇELEBI, Katip. Taqwim al-Tawarikh.
[Turkey, early 18th century]. 8vo. Ottoman Turkish manuscript written in red and black ink, in a small and neat nastaliq hand within a gilt frame (ca. 27 lines to the page). With a hand-drawn gilt floral headpiece at the start of the work. Contemporary(?) Ottoman gold-tooled brown goatskin, with an oval medallion (şemse) within a decorative frame (zencirek) on both boards, a gold-tooled front flap. [89], [2 blank] ll. Full description

€ 15,000

Very detailed manuscript map of the Duchy of Guelders and surroundings (ca. 1580/1600) with 7 provincial coats of arms, the whole in coloured inks and gold on parchment

[MAP - GELDERLAND - MANUSCRIPT]. [SGROOTEN, Christiaan]. Gelderlant.
[Gelderland?], [ca. 1580/1600]. (36 x 37.5 cm; map image 35.5 x 36.5 cm). Manuscript map in coloured inks (and gold) on parchment (at a scale of about 1:315,000, with north to the left, covering about 51.4-52.8° N latitude and 4.9-6.8° E longitude), with 7 provincial coats of arms (rendered in colour and gold), three different variable scales (presumably intended as miles) in the lower right corner (2 units ranging from 30 to 45 mm) and a 6 cm square-rigged, two-masted ship in the Zuyder Zee. It shows rivers in dark blue, lakes and seas in light blue, hills in brown and trees in green, both highlighted with gold, and political regions both shaded and outlined in various colours. Cities and hundreds of towns and villages appear in red, the cities shown in profile with a gold dot, the others indicated by red dots, and all their names (and the names of regions) written quite clearly in brown ink. The whole map has a border in red ink on all four sides, with "Noordt" (North) lettered in gold capitals and small capitals in the right border. Full description

€ 32,500

Unpublished French study of Islamic coins and medals,
with about 157 drawings and engravings, many in colour

[MARCEL, Jean-Joseph?]. [Islamic coins and medals].
[Paris?], [ca. 1791-ca. 1817?]. Mostly folio (31.5 x 21 cm). A manuscript compilation of loose leaves and bifolia, with about 104 drawings (some in ink; some in coloured gouaches, many including gold, silver and other metallic colours) and about 53 engravings (some black on white; some white on black) each drawing and engraving showing the obverse and reverse of an Islamic coin or medal (except for about 3 that show only one side). Most of the drawings and engravings are on slips attached to leaves with notes in Arabic and French.Loose leaves and bifolia. [ca. 150] ll. Full description

€ 28,000

Recommending a rising star for the chair of Arabic at Algiers

[AUTOGRAPH]. MARCEL, Jean-Joseph. [Autograph letter, signed, of recommendation for Louis Bresnier].
Paris, 9 September 1836. Folio (36 x 23 cm). Letter in brown ink on wove paper. [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Autograph awarding a Berlin chemist a prize for his paper on potash from the ashes of plants

[AUTOGRAPH]. MARUM, Martinus van. [Autograph letter, signed, to Johann Friedrich John].
Haarlem, 27 May 1816. 4to (22 x 18.5 cm). Letter in French, in brown ink on one side of a folded half sheet of wove paper, with the address on the back with a stamp ("Haarlem"). The letter was originally folded four times more, displaying only the address at the outside. Full description

€ 1,500

A baptism at Batavia

[MANUSCRIPT - DOCUMENT - BATAVIA]. MAUREGNAULT, Bernard Jacob. [18th-century extract from the register of baptisms of the Dutch Reformed Church at Batavia].
Batavia, 18 October 1746. 1 leaf (32.5 x 20.5 cm). In Dutch. Full description

€ 600

Prince Maurits gives Oldenbarnevelt temporary oversight of Den Tempel,
which later gave him his title, signed by Prince Maurits and bearing his armorial seal

MAURITS, Prince of Orange. [Declaration for Jan de Roo].
[The Hague], 4 December 1589. 1mo (41 x 31.5). Document written in brown ink on one side of a whole sheet of paper in an upright gothic cursive hand, with the autograph signature "Maurice de Nassau" and with his armorial seal (3 x 2.5 cm) stamped on a slip of paper over red sealing wax. With (separately added) Maurits's signature clipped out of another document and mounted on a paper slip. [1] leaf, written on one side. Full description

€ 5,000

Manuscript medical manual

[MEDICAL MANUAL AND RECIPE BOOK]. Examen: vor ein neuer angehender Chirurgus, der sich will examiniren lassen, daß er in seinem examen bestehet, und wohl erfunden wird, so muß er dieses alles auswendig lernen, daß er antworten kann, über dasjenige was ihm gefragt wird. Anno 1806.
Franconia and Alsace (Augsburg, Nuremberg, Strasbourg), 1800-1826. 4to (17 x 23 cm). German (and Latin) manuscript by various hands. Contemporary boards with vellum corners and modern cloth spine. [47], "286" [= 285], [47] pp. Full description

€ 1,800

Catherine de' Medici and the Ottoman Sultan Murad III

[LETTER - SIGNED]. MEDICI, Catherine de'. [Letter to Jacques de Germigny in Constantinople (Istanbul)].
Chenonceaux, 2 September 1584. Folio (34 x 24 cm). Signed letter in French, in brown ink on paper, written in a clear gothic hand. Folded for sending and addressed on the outside, with a slot for a ribbon and traces of a red wax seal. [1], [3 blank (except for address)] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Dutch medicinal and culinary recipe book, begun ca. 1720 in a ca. 1700 album

[MEDICINE - RECIPES]. Recepten boek.
[The Netherlands], album [ca. 1700], written [ca. 1720] to 1758 or possibly later. Large agenda 8vo (20.5 x 12 cm). Manuscript in dark brown ink on laid paper, with 1 printed and 10 manuscript slips with recipes loosely inserted (late 18th & early 19th centuries). Recased ca. 1720 in its own original ca. 1700 blind-tooled parchment, with a large centrepiece on each board. pp. [15], 16, 23-188, 197-386, [387]-[412] (minus 16 scattered pp.), including integral paste-downs, and about 160 pp. blank except for the page number. Full description

€ 2,650

A French general's correspondence with an Italian lady

[MEYER von SCHAUENSEE, Maurus]. Lettres familieres sur la Carinthie et la Stirie, adressées a madame Bianchi, de Bologne. Par un officier général Français, prisonnier de guerre en Autriche. 1799.
Leoben (Austria) and Paris, Louis-François Prault, an IX [= 1800/01]. 8vo. With a woodcut vignette on the title-page. Contemporary green half calf, gold-tooled spine. [8], 208 pp. Full description

€ 1,850

Practical geometry, fortification and artillery ca. 1750

[MILITARY]. Geometria of meetkonst ... Vestingbou of fortificatie ... [Artillerie].
[Netherlands, ca. 1750]. 3 related works in 1 volume. Folio. With numerous mathematical diagrams, fortification plans and measured drawings of artillery and ammunition, including 12 full-page watercolour drawings (3 fortification plans and 9 beautifully rendered canons) and many more watercolour drawings in the text. With a large folding fortification plan tipped in, a large folding artillery drawing loosely inserted, and several smaller drawings tipped in or loosely inserted. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [2 blank], [40], [12 blank]; [37 (plus a folding plan & other inserts)], [5 blank]; [22] (plus a folding drawing), [16 blank] ll. including the integral paste-downs. Full description

€ 6,500

Charming and finely executed miniature, probably by a German follower of Simon Bening

[MINIATURE - GERMAN]. [The Arrest of Christ].
[Flanders (Bruges?), or Nürnberg, ca. 1520]. Miniature painted on vellum (7.8 x 5.6 cm) in numerous colours, highlighted with gold and in a gold border, probably from a book of hours, but with no text. Full description

€ 7,500

Manuscript of one of the first printed books on Dutch poisonous plants, together with the printed edition,
bound with an unpublished pharmacological manuscript

[MIQUEL, Friedrich Anton Wilhelm.]. Over de Noord-Nederlandsche vergiftige gewaschen.
[Rotterdam?, 1836?]. 4to. Manuscript in brown ink on laid paper, written in Dutch in a small but neat Latin hand.With: [MIQUEL, Friedrich Anton Wilhelm?]. Pharmacie.
[Rotterdam?, ca. 1845?]. 8vo. Manuscript in brown ink on wove paper, written in Dutch in a small but neat Latin hand. Near contemporary half cloth (impressed with a diamond diaper pattern), marbled sides (light brown unusual spots on dark brown shell spots, the interior of the unusual spots looking more like "tourniquet" or "Gustav" marbling than Stormont or "cassés"), sewn on 2 tapes. With the second manuscript never sewn or bound and loosely inserted.
Together with: (2) MIQUEL, Friedrich Anton Wilhelm. De Noord-Nederlandsche vergiftige gewassen.
Amsterdam, C.G. Sulpke (back of title-page: printed by C.A. Spin), 1836-1837. 8vo. With 30 partly hand-coloured lithographed plates. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers over boards. Ad 1: [1], [3 blank], 145, [3 blank] pp.; [3], 10, [10], [5 blank] ll., both written primarily on the rectos. Ad 2: 198, [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Dutch participant's memorabilia from the 1937 Monte Carlo Automobile Rally

[MONTE CARLO AUTOMOBILE RALLY]. [A collection of manuscript documents, photographs, magazines and newspaper clippings concerning the 1937 Monte Carlo Automobile Rally].
[The Netherlands, Monte Carlo, etc.], 1937. Full description

€ 1,950

Ship's journal from Seychelles and Madagascar,
with numerous maps and earlier illustrated anatomical lecture notes

[MANUSCRIPT - SHIP'S JOURNAL]. MORSE, Edward George. A journal of remarks and observations as kept by E. G. M. . ..
[mostly on board the barque Sarah of London], April 1831-14 March 1833 (with additions to 1835). with an engraved view as frontispiece, 15 full-page, 1 nearly full-page and 1 smaller manuscript maps and coastal profiles, plus a small engraved view ("Tomb of Napoleon") mounted on 1 page.
Including: MORSE, Edward George. Lecture Book [notes on anatomical lectures by Joseph Constantine Carpue].
[London], November-December 1828. with a matching pair of engravings of a scull on and facing the title-page, and 27 pencil and/or ink anatomical drawings (including 2 full-page), some also with red. 4to (19.5×16.5 cm). Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [191] ll. Including paste-downs and about 55 blanks. Full description

€ 35,000

Manuscript compilation on Arabia and vicinity with 39 pages of illustrations, especially inscriptions,
but including views of the Great Mosques at Mecca and Medina

NIEBUHR, Carsten, and others (Johan Louis GERLAGH, compiler and draftsman). Aanteekeningen uit de Reise naar Arabie, en andere omliggende landen, van Carsten Niebuhr, geteekent en geschreeven door Joh. Louis Gerlagh.
[Hoeven? (near Breda)], 1785. Folio (29 x 22 cm). Manuscript in Dutch, written in ink on paper, with two loosely inserted supplements (2 bifolia), with a calligraphic title-page and 39 pages of (mostly) ink and grey ink wash drawings, plus a small drawing of an inscription and a few written examples in the text. Contemporary half canvas, sides covered with printed pattern paper. 63, [10] ll. Full description

€ 75,000

Manuscript letter by one of the first missionaries in Samoa, being a rare first-hand account
of missionary life in the South Pacific

NISBET, Henry. [Letter to his sister Sarah Nisbet].
Upolu, Samoa, 7 January 1844. Folio. Written in one column in brown ink in a cursive 19th-century hand. Folded. [2] ll. Full description

€ 5,000

1598 ordinance for clearing trees around windmills, signed by Johan van Oldenbarnevelt

[MANUSCRIPT - ORDINANCE]. OLDENBARNEVELT, Johan van. [Ordinance forbidding the planting of trees around windmills in the Land van Arkel (in the southwestern corner of the province of Holland) and requiring the removal of existing trees].
The Hague, 14 December 1598. Manuscript document in Dutch in brown ink on the skin side of a single piece of sheepskin parchment (36 x 48 cm, folded to 14 x 19 cm). Full description

€ 2,950

Manuscript log of a voyage from Suez through the Red and Arabian Seas to Bombay, Karachi and Colombo, with 8 excellent nautical charts and 5 beautiful sketches, including one of the city of Muscat

[OMAN NAVIGATION LOGBOOK]. MCKINNELL, Thomas, assistant master. Log of the proceedings. HMS "Cyclops". W. J. S. Pullen Esq. Captain. Commencing Monday 7th February 1859, ending Wednesday 22nd of May, 1861. Kept by Thos. McKinnell, Mast. Asst.
HMS Cyclops: Oman, Khuriya Muriya Islands, Yemen, Egypt, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other places, 1857-1861. Folio (20 x 31.5 cm). Over 360 pp. of manuscript entries, written with brown ink in a legible hand on watermarked laid paper with a blue cast. With 8 pen and ink nautical charts and 5 sketches of coastal sites, including the city of Muscat (8 on the logbook pages and 5 on separate thick album leaves). Contemporary brown cloth over boards, rebacked in period-style black calf with the spine lettered in gold: "Log H.M.S. Cyclops". [ca. 360], [32 blank] pp. Full description

€ 45,000

Ottoman manuscript atlas of the western (mostly European) parts of the Ottoman Empire, with 10 maps

[OTTOMAN ATLAS - MANUSCRIPT]. [Atlas of the western Ottoman Empire].
Ottoman Empire, ca. 1910. Oblong 4to (26.5 x 19.5 cm). 14 leaves with 10 pen-and-ink maps, hand coloured with watercolours. Tissue guards. Gold-stamped cloth with the tughra of Mehmed V (ruled 1908-18) on the front board (when reading right to left) and "Album" on the back board (the front when reading left to right), with an inscription below the tughra and the European numerals "16" and "2" flanking an ornament below the inscription, the whole framed by 4 large floral cornerpieces. Full description

€ 8,500

Rare first and only edition of an 1800 revision of a 1792 treaty between Russia and Prussia

PAVEL (PAUL) I, Tsar. [Title in Russian followed on the same page by:] Traité d'alliance défensive conclu entre leurs majestés, Empereur de toutes les Russies et le Roi de Prusse le 16/28 Juillet 1800.
St Petersburg, Imperial Printing Office, 1801. Folio (29.5 x 21.5 cm). Treaty between Russia and Prussia in Russian and French in 2 parallel columns in cyrillic (left) and roman (right) types. Loose bifolia (and 1 singleton leaf). [13], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Religious manuscript in German in a fine binding

[PEIKHART, Franz (original compiler)]. Andachtsübungen eines Christen vor die Morgens- und Abendszeit, Heilige Mess, Beicht und Communion: mehrentheils aus denen Psalmen Davidis gezogen.
[Vienna?, ca. 1800]. 8vo. Manuscript in German on laid paper. 19th-century elaborately gold-tooled green morocco, spine with raised bands and red morocco label lettered "A.M.C.Z." in gold, gold-tooled turn-ins, paste-paper endleaves, gilt edges. [62] ll. Full description

€ 1,250

An exceptional series of 50 meticulously executed miniatures

[PERSIAN MINIATURES]. A series of miniatures showing Persian scribes.
Persia, mid-Qajar period, [soon after 1852]. Folio (32 x 21 cm). 50 watercolour miniatures on paper, ca. 9 x 14 cm, pasted on coloured paperboard within multiple-rule frames in gold and black ink, bound as a fan-fold book with cloth hinges. Near-contemporary black leather, stored in a blind-stamped black slipcase with a flap at the head. Full description

€ 75,000

Traversing Qajar Persia with a manuscript guide

[PERSIA - TRAVEL GUIDE]. [Manuscript travel guide].
[Qajar Iran, ca. 1850s]. 8vo (12.5 x 22 cm). Persian manuscript on polished paper. Black nasta'liq script in 15 lines per page, ruled in green and blue, with rubricated chapter headings and marginal medallions. Contemporary limp leather and woven floral-patterned cloth. 26 ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Trade in Venetian cloth in early 18th-century Cairo

[AUTOGRAPH]. [PETEA(?)], Michiel. [Letter, signed, to Nicolò Caragiani in Venice concerning the trading conditions in Cairo for different woolen and silk fabrics].
Cairo, 22 October 1732. Manuscript letter in Italian, opening with a duplicate of an earlier letter, in a different hand, dated 26 September 1732, written in ink on one page of a bifolium originally folded 4 more times for sending (to 8.5 x 14 cm) with the address on one side and traces of a red wax on the other. Full description

€ 3,500

Pharmacological manuscript with 319 medicinal recipes, at least many for sexual ailments,
with a (presentation?) inscription in French to an unmarried woman

[MANUSCRIPT - PHARMACOLOGICAL]. [Medicinal recipes for sexual ailments].
[Germany?, ca. 1857]. Small 8vo (17 x 11 cm). Manuscript in Latin and German. Contemporary half tan cloth. 33, [35], [32 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

King Philip II mortgages then sells his lands of Voorburg and Voorschoten
near The Hague to help fund his wars

[MANUSCRIPT]. PHILIP (FELIPE) II, King of Spain. [Mortgage agreement, granting Jan Hanneman, Steward General of North Holland, the rights to the tithes of the King's lands of Voorburg and Voorschoten].
The Hague and Brussels, 1557 (with additions to 1565). Folio (36 x 25.5 cm). Manuscript mortgage agreement, signed by King Philip's representatives, written in brown ink on parchment in a nearly upright cursive gothic hand. With a typescript transcription of the main text and an interlinear translation in Spanish. [2 blank], 9, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

2 signed autograph letters from a French privateer

[AUTOGRAPH - MARITIME - PIRACY]. PLEUC or PLEVE?, Jacques René. [Two autograph letters, signed, attempting to secure promised payments for the booty of the captured English frigate HMS Liverpool by the French privateer Le Grand Décidé, one addressed to Auguste-Anne de Bergevin, Commissaire principal de Marine in Bordeaux, and the other to the brothers Amédée & Eugene Larrieu in Bordeaux, who sold the booty].
Bordeaux, 30 June & 18 November 1820. Folio (32.5 x 21 cm) & 4to (19.5 x 20.5 cm). In dark brown ink on paper. [2], [2 blank]; [2], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Extensively illustrated manuscript course of practical geometry with more than 350 figures, including perspective, projections, architecture, cartography & sundials

[MANUSCRIPT]. PRÉVOST, M. Cours de géométrie pratique professé par M. Prevost et suivi par C.F. Frenet. Comprenant 1o. La géométrie élémentaire avec ses applications au toisé, au cubage, géodésie, etc. 2o. La géométrie descriptive avec ses applications à la perspective, à la coupe des pierres etc.
[Lyon?, ca. 1825?]. Oblong folio (35 x 45 cm). With a flourished calligraphic title-page signed "[Charles] Esclozas scripsit", and 140 leaves with more than 350 figures in black ink and sometimes pencil, red ink or coloured washes (blue, yellow, red, green and grey), illustrating plain and solid geometry, projections, perspective, architecture, bridges, cartography, globes, sundials, etc., and with text and illustrations in black thick-thin borders. Contemporary green half morocco, spine richly gold-tooled. [1], [1 blank], [97], [1 blank] pp. plus 140 illustration ll. partly numbered in 13 series. Full description

€ 25,000

Back to basics and becoming a freemason 'master':
an appeal by the freemason grand master Prince Frederik, with his wax seal

PRINCE FREDERIK. Frederik, Prins der Nederlanden, grootmeester nationaal der Orde van V.·.M.·. [= Vrijmetselarij] in het Koningkrijk der Nederlanden aan de S.·.P.·.R [maltese cross] [= Soeverein Prinsen van het Rozenkruis] behorende tot de kapittels, gevestigd in de noordelijke provintien van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden. [dated at the head:] In het O.·. [= Oosten] van 's Gravenhage den [manuscript: "24"] Januarij 1820, P.S. [= profane stijl].
The Hague, [24] January 1820. 8vo. Contemporary stiff marbled paper wrappers. 97, [3 blank], 6, [1], [1 blank], 17, 23 pp. Full description

€ 1,850

Promoting Catholicism through missionary work as the Jesuits lost power:
a manuscript from the Sir Thomas Phillipps collection

[PROPAGANDA FIDE]. Africa [-] Greci - Italo Greci [-] Armeni di Venezia [-] varie.
[Rome and perhaps elsewhere, ca. 1758-1764 (transcribing original documents going back to at least 1664)]. 4to. Collection of manuscript transcriptions of about 30 letters and other documents. Contemporary Italian sheepskin parchment over flexible boards. [416] pp., including about 15 blank leaves. Full description

€ 39,500

From a famous private collection

[MANUSCRIPT - QURAN]. [A splendid illuminated Quran manuscript].
Iran, AH 1204 [= 1783 AD]. 8vo (15 x 9 cm) Illuminated Arabic manuscript on paper, 19 lines per page, written in a neat naskh script in black ink with diacritics in red, margins ruled in gold and colours. Gold discs or florets between verses, sura headings written in white in gold cartouches flanked by panels with alternating floral motifs in gold and various colours. Brown morocco with a flap and gold-tooled borders and central ornaments. 243 ll. plus 2 end-leaves. Full description

€ 18,000

Persian music theory from "The Pearly Crown"

QUTB AL-DIN AL-SHIRAZI. Durrat al-taj wa-khulasat al-nitaj fi ilm al-musiqa.
Shiraz, 1151 AH [= 1738/39 CE]. 4to (ca. 16.5 x 21 cm). Persian manuscript on gold-flecked paper. In tidy black naskh script in 22 lines, with highlights and important words and phrases picked out in red. WIth numerous tables and diagrams. Contemporary leather-backed patterned boards. 57 ll. Full description

€ 35,000

Manuscript chronicle of the Islamic World 635-1453

[RAMPOLDI, Giovanni Battista]. [Annali Musulmani].
[Tuscany?, ca. 1825]. 4to (20.5 x 14 cm). Manuscript in Italian, written in dark brown ink on (mostly) laid paper. Contemporary or near contemporary half maroon cloth. [531], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

A little-known medical treatise from one of the greatest minds in the history of medicine

RAZI, Abu Bakr Muhammaed ibn Zakariyya al-. [RHAZES]. Taqasim al-ilal. [= Classification of diseases].
Western Persia, 996 AH [= 1588 CE]. 2 volumes. Tall 8vo (18.5 x 10 cm). Arabic manuscript on paper. Black naskh script with important words and phrases picked out in red. Stored in a custom-made red cloth box, disbound, originally bound as one. 109; 89 ll. Full description

€ 65,000

Dutch rural pharmacist's manuscript recipe book, with veterinary and human medicaments

[RECIPE BOOK - TWENTE]. [Recipe book].
[Twente, ca. 1865]. 4to. with many added notes. Contemporary half calf. [ca. 300] pp. Full description

€ 1,800

Signed autograph letter from Redouté acknowledging payment from the Paris bookseller L. Debure for Les Roses

[AUTOGRAPH]. REDOUTÉ, Pierre-Joseph. [Letter acknowledging payment from the Paris bookseller Debure for Les Roses, part 30].
Paris, 18 February 1824. 4to (24.5 x 18.5 cm). Autograph letter, signed, written in brown ink on paper, with a note in a different hand recording a related payment. [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Handwritten copy of the explanatory text belonging to a print
commemorating the early history of the Remonstrants

[PROTESTANT REMONSTRANTS]. Verklaring van het monument voor de Remonstranten.
[ca. 1825]. Plano (27.4 x 34.5 cm). Manuscript text in ink on paper with 2 drawn borders in red, text in 3 colums, caligraphic title. [1] leaf. Full description

€ 150

Fine calligraphic manuscript teaching traditional science to the son of Comte de Choiseul-Gouffier,
French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, finely bound in contemporary gold-tooled morocco

[MANUSCRIPT]. REMY, Claude. Traité des elemens présenté à M. Raoul de Choiseul-Gouffier.
Paris, 1786. Small 8vo. Calligraphic manuscript written in French in dark brown ink on paper, in a formal Latin script hand (a French-style "batard"), with an ornamental, calligraphic title-page in reddish brown, green, dark brown and black ink, each page in a thick-thin-thin border with circular decorations in each corner and centred at the head, running heads in the border, the heading of the "Avertissement" in a decorative script, and calligraphic chapter headings in circular or rectangular decorations and sub-headings in decorated horizontal bands. Contemporary red, gold-tooled morocco, the smooth spine divided into 6 panels (separated by lines flanked by dotted lines), the 2nd with a dark green title-label, each of the others with an 8-petalled flower, 10 dots, a decoration in each corner and another at each side, and a decorated band at the foot; each board with a border of thin-thick-thin fillets with a decoration stamped on each corner and a 6-petalled flower inside each corner; gold-tooled turn-ins, gold fillets on the board edges (altogether about 130 impressions of 13 tools), gilt edges. [2], 186, [4] pp. Full description

€ 16,000

Unique compilation of articles, mainly published within the Asiatic Society of Bengal,
on Indian prehistory, antiquity and archaeology

RIVETT-CARNAC, John Henry; Archibald Campbell CARLLEYLE; Raja Rajendralal MITRA; and others. [Manuscript spine title:] Indian antiquities.
[Various places, various publishers, 1877-1903]. About 40 publications in 1 volume. Large and occasionally small 8vo. About 40 archaeological works, most written by John Harry Rivett-Carnac, on prehistoric remains in India and on Indian culture, along with loosely inserted prints, with 41 (lithographed?) plates (some folding) showing monoliths, gorges, tumuli, cup-marks, ancient rock carvings, stone implements, spindle whorls and flint tools, all found in India, but also Buddha and Hindu sculptured figures and ancient coins of important Indian dynasties. Also included are 2 lithographs (one of a sculpted Hindu group near Kanouj) and 3 photographic collotypes reproductions of ancient coins. Half black morocco, green cloth sides, title and author's name in gold on spine. ca. 230 leaves, including the plates. Full description

€ 2,750

Original manuscripts of two influential essays on art and society

ROLAND HOLST, Richard Nicolaüs. Over de monumentale schilderkunst en hare beinvloeding door de maatschappij.
[Laren?, 1910].
With: (2) ROLAND HOLST, Richard Nicolaüs. Over het rythmische en het naturalistische element in de monumentale schilderkunst.
[Laren?, 1914]. Small 4to. Neatly written in dark brown ink on machine-made wove paper without watermark. Loosely inserted is a newspaper clipping with an article about Roland Holst's lectures in Paris, from the Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant, 28 November 1923. Sewn in quires and each essay formerly glued (now loose) in dark grey thick paper wrappers. [2 blank], [64], [2 blank]; [35], [5 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,250

Letter by the famous musician and music historian Julius Röntgen elaborating on Telemann

[AUTOGRAPH]. RÖNTGEN, Julius. [Autograph letter, signed, to Max Seiffert(?)].
Bilthoven (the house 'Gaudeamus'), 19 November 1926. Doubleleaf (21.5 x 13.5 cm). In German. 4 pp. Full description

€ 750

Manuscript family chronicle of a branch of the Roorda family

[GENEALOGY & HERALDRY - ROORDA FAMILY]. RODA, Dirk Daniels, and others. [Manuscript family chronicle of members of the Roda, Werdolen and Bos families].
[The Netherlands, mostly written between ca. 1747 and 1798 but incorporating several pages written in the second half of the 17th century and some writing from 1829]. Oblong 8vo (ca. 10.5 x 16 cm). Manuscript on paper, written in brown and black ink in several -, 17th-, 18th- and 19th-century hands. With a full-page unidentified coat-of-arms in brown ink and a page containing 6 smaller crests of branches of the Roorda family in black ink. 18th-century gold-tooled calf, gilt edges, green cloth ties. [1 blank], [5], [3 blank], [20], [1 blank], [1], [78 blank] ll. Full description

€ 3,750

Discussing the survey of the West coast of Africa

[AUTOGRAPH]. ROUSSIN, Admiral Albin Reine. [Autograph letter, signed, to Louis-Marie Bajot].
Rochefort, 31 August 1818. Double-leaf (31.3 x 20 cm). In French. 2 pp. text. 2 pp. text. Full description

€ 3,500

A letter by Moritz Rugendas, author of Voyage pittoresque dans le Brésil

[AUTOGRAPH]. RUGENDAS, Johann Moritz. [Autograph letter signed ("Mor. Rugendas") to an unnamed recipient].
Munich, 21 December 1852. 8vo (22 x 14 cm). In German.
With: (2) [AUTOGRAPH]. REGNET, Carl Albert. [Manuscript note about Rugendas, signed ("Regnet")].
Munich, 13 January 1869. In German. [4]; [2], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 4,750

1784 copy of a 1568 manuscript map of Walcheren and Zuid-Beveland in Zeeland

[MAP - NETHERLANDS - ZEELAND]. RUYTE, Lieven. [Walcheren ... Zuyt Bevelant].
Tholen, Korstiaen Bestebroer, 1784. Map: 42 x 52.5 cm (frame: 61 x 71.5 cm). Manuscript map in ink and watercolour on paper (map image 37 x 47 cm) at a scale of about 1:55,000 with north at the top. Framed. Full description

€ 1,900

Outstanding botanical manuscript in perfect condition

SALLERON, Louis. [MANUSCRIPT]. Catalogue général des plantes cultivées a l'école de botanique du jardin du roi. Selon la classification adoptée par M. Ad. Brongniart, et indiquant en synonymes les noms des plantes de l'ancienne école de desfontaines.
Paris, 1848. 4to. In a dark green custom case with thte title on the spine in gold lettering, interior of red calfskin lined with suede. Dark green morocco. [10], 17, [1], 425, [31] pp. Full description

€ 28,000

Shah Jahan, Begum of Bhopal, becomes the second female member of the Order of the Star of India

[SHAH JAHAN, Begum of BHOPAL], Thomas George BARING and others. [Official documents related to the investiture of Sultan Shah Jahan, the Begum of Bhopal, in the Order of the Star of India].
[Fort William (Kolkata) and other places, ca. 1873]. Folio (ca. 32.5 x 21 cm). Finely written letter in English signed "Northbrook" and addressed to Shah Jahan; about 11 official manuscripts in Urdu (7 verified as "true copy" or "true translation", some on folding leaves); and 3 folding manuscript pages giving the contents of the folder. Many of the documents include manuscript annotations in Urdu in the margin and two documents contain large stamps (text in Urdu). Loose in a contemporary government folder with a paper label and a manuscript title in Urdu on the front. Full description

€ 7,500

Finely illustrated manuscript handbook for architects, engineers, etc.

[MANUSCRIPT - APPLIED MATHEMATICS]. SIMMONDS, J. Hints, tables &ca [for mining, military engineering, architecture, etc.].
[England], 1840. (16.5 x 12 cm). Manuscript in ink on paper, in English, with numerous architectural and other illustrations in pencil and ink, many with grey and/or pink washes, on 30 pages, numerous manuscript tables. Written and illustrated partly on rectos only and partly on both rectos and versos. Contemporary English dark green gold-tooled calf, gold-tooled board edges, gold fillets on turn-ins, green ribbon marker, gilt edges. Rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down. [61] ll. Full description

€ 2,500

Original logs and journals of South American voyages 1857-1860, with 8 sea charts (with routes)
and about 23 views (many in colour)

SNEYD-KYNNERSLEY, Thomas Alfred. Log of H.M.S. Cumberland [commanded by] Captain J.B. Dickson bearing the flag of Rear Admiral Provo W.P. Wallis, ... commencing 5th April 1857, ending 30th April 1858.
With:
(2) SNEYD-KYNNERSLEY, Thomas Alfred. Log of H.M.S. Siren . 16 guns, commanded from May 1st to May 8th 1858 by Captain J.H. Selwyn, from May 9th 1858 to [27th July 1858] by Com[ande]r G.M. Balfour.
(3) SNEYD-KYNNERSLEY, Thomas Alfred. Journal of T.A. Sneyd Kynnersley acting mate H.M.S. Siren, 16 [guns], commencing July 28 1858, ending [11 April 1860].
[In the Atlantic, along the European, African and especially the South American coasts, 1857-1860]. Small folio (32 x 20.5 cm). Three English manuscript ships' logs written in a single album in black ink on laid paper with a blue cast, with 3 hand-lettered title-pages, 2 sea charts showing the routes and 8 colour views (in watercolour, coloured pencil and sepia and black ink, mostly ships on the South American coast, but also camps) are drawn on 9 separate leaves, and 6 sea charts showing the routes and about 15 views drawn directly on the album leaves, mostly in black ink, but including a colour plan of one of the ships. Contemporary black half sheepskin. [215 (including 5 blank)], [117 blank] pp. Full description

€ 22,000

Finely executed Royal Naval Academy exercises by the teenage future Admiral,
Charles Sotheby 493 pages including nautical charts, fortification plans,
astronomical diagrams, topographic views, etc.:

SOTHEBY, Charles. [engraved title-page:] A plan of mathematical learning taught in the Royal Academy Portsmouth performed by [in pencil: Charles Sotheby] a student there.
[Portsmouth], "177 " [recté 1795-1798]. 2 volumes. Imperial 4to (37.5 x 27 cm). Manuscript school exercises with a pre-printed engraved title-page with a blank space for the student to add his name, with 4 full-page and 1 larger folding nautical charts (some partly in colour), 7 full-page fortification plans (in black ink with 1 to 3 colours), 4 full-page astronomical diagrams (2 also with yellow), a full-page compass rose, 23 pen and ink wash views in the text (9 x 15 cm to 12.5 x 22 cm, 1 also with blue washes), and numerous other diagrams (including maps in the surveying section) and some illustrations in the text. Near contemporary (ca. 1803) blind- and gold-tooled half calf, blue sprinkled edges. engraved title-page + “229” [= 228]; 230-493, [2 blank] pp., with pp. 229 and 493 blank excepting the page numbers. Full description

€ 25,000

Important German gothic art collection, reproduced in watercolour by the collector himself

SOYTER, Magnus. [Collection of watercolour drawings with manuscript captions].
[Augsburg], 1849-1853. 13 loose wove paper folio leaves and 1 loose wove paper bifolium. Large folio (55 x 35 cm). With 64 watercolours and manuscript captions on 15 leaves (each leaf drawn on one side only). [15] ll. Full description

€ 18,000

Collegial letter by the famous 19th-century Dutch naval hero Jan van Speijk

SPEIJK, Jan Carel Josephus van. [Autograph letter to Johan Arnould Zoutman jr].
On board his gunboat "Z.M. kanonneerboot no. 2" off the coast level with 't Wiel, near Antwerp, 13 October 1830. 4to (25 x 22.5 cm). Folded. [1] leaf. Full description

€ 3,500

Autograph letter by the great African explorer

[AUTOGRAPH]. STANLEY, Henry Morton. [Autograph letter, signed].
[London]. 1900 8vo. Signed autograph letter from the African explorer Henry Morton Stanley to the governor of Natal and Zululand Sir Walter Francis Hely-Hutchinson, written on paper with an embossed address. 1, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Unique source for the early 19th-century Utrecht ceramic tile art industry

[TILES - MODEL BOOK]. [Model book of Dutch tile designs].
[Utrecht?, ca. 1810?]. Small square 4to (20 x 19 cm). With 111 pen and wash model drawings for Dutch tiles on the rectos of 105 leaves, most in greys but many in brown or a beautiful Delft blue. Several combine more than one colour, all in the actual size of tiles. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. [2 blank], 105, [6 blank] ll. Full description

€ 35,000

Autograph copy by the author for his wife of his famous collection of erotic poems, translated from the Arabic

TOUSSAINT, Franz. Le jardin des caresses.
May and June 1936. 11.5 x 12 cm. Manuscript in French written by the author in blank ink a neat 20th-century hand in one column. Chapter divisions are made in the form of a calligraphic leaf, drawn in the same black ink as the text. Bound in contemporary richly gold-tooled arabesque beige morocco with a flap at the front-edge, covered with gold-tooled green morocco on the inside, purple and white head and end bands, gold and light blue endpapers. Stored in a professionally made beige morocco box (ca. 15 x 15 cm) with a gold-tooled three-line fillet frame on the boards, on the inside covered with light pink silk, title in gold on the spine. [3 blank], [141], [13 blank] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

French manuscript travel guide for Egypt

[TOUSTAIN-RICHEBOURG, Henri de]. [Manuscript travel guide to Egypt].
[France?, 1850s]. With 17 pages of text written with pen and ink in French and 4 pages of annotations in pencil. Unbound, pages later inexpertly sewn together. 30 ll. Full description

€ 1,950

Complete manuscript course in pharmacological chemistry

[TROMMSDORFF, Johann Bartholomäus?]. Leerstelsel der algemeene en artsenijmengkundige proefondervindelijke scheikunde.
Including: [GRAHAM, Thomas?]. De bewerktuigde lighamen: scheikundige beschouwing aangaande de voornaamste bestaandeelen der planten benevens de meest belangrijkste[!] producten welke men door derzelver ontleding bekoomt.
[Amsterdam?], 19 October 1830. 4to. Manuscript in Dutch, written in black ink in a Latin hand on laid paper. Near contemporary half tanned sheepskin. [1], [1 blank], 111, [112-329], [1 blank]; [2 blank], [68]; [2 blank], [41], [5 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Letter of Antony Troyer on his research into the Rajatarangini

[AUTOGRAPH]. TROYER, Antony. Letter to the French orientalist Joseph Toussaint Reinaud.
Paris (Rue de la Pépinière), 18 October 1848. Small 4to. Autograph letter, signed, written in ink on paper. Folded. [1], [2 blank], [1] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Autograph letters, signed, and a draft, by a leading French Republican naval officer

[AUTOGRAPH]. TRUGUET, Comte Laurent Jean François. [Autograph letters, signed, to several recipients, mostly military colleagues and government officials].
Paris, 1815-1839. 8vo (mostly ca. 19 x 13 cm). 10 signed autograph letters in French, plus a draft for another, written in ink on laid and wove paper, 3 with their red wax seals or parts of seals (2 more with traces of former seals), and 6 with recipients' addresses. [24] ll. incl. 2 blanks. Full description

€ 6,500

Interesting insights into the financial position of many eminent and noble Utrecht families

[UTRECHT - BANKING]. [Account book of the banking house and stockbrokers firm Vlaer & Kol at Utrecht, for the years 1818-1821].
[Utrecht, 1818-1821]. Folio. Contemporary parchment over boards, sewn on 4 vellum tapes, formerly laced through the joints, spine lettered in ink: "FU" and later in pencil: "1819". [24], 185 ll. Full description

€ 4,000

Vanderbilt's hippodrome in watercolour

[HORSE RACING TRACK]. [VANDERBILT, William Kissam]. Hippodrome de Carrieres-sous-Poissy, Seine et Oise, appartenant a Mr. Vanderbilt W. K.
Poissy, Ch[arles] Robin, 1903-1904-1911. Large hand-coloured four-sheet plan (90 x 170 cm as assembled). Drawn in pen and ink, graphite and watercolour on paper mounted on canvas. Framed (105 x 205 cm). Full description

€ 45,000

French (1811) and British (1814) governments of the East Indies">Three "attestaties de vita" (life certificates) for a single employer who served the Dutch (1805),
French (1811) and British (1814) governments of the East Indies

VERMEULEN, Adriaan Theodoor. [Three original manuscript documents (Attestaties de Vita)]
Serambang & Soerabaya (Indonesia) , 1805, 1811 & 1814. Folio & 4to. Three manuscript certificates, written in ink on paper, folded. 1; 1; 1 pp. Full description

€ 2,250

Two very interesting letters on the salamander and other subjects
to Hermann Schlegel of the Rijksmuseum of Natural History at Leiden

VERSTER VAN WULVERHORST, Abraham Hendrik van. Two signed autograph letters to Hermann Schlegel.
Noordwijk, 10 March and 9 October 1834. Folio (23 x 38.5 cm & 26 x 44 cm). 2 autograph letters, each written on a single leaf and folded for posting with the address and remnants of a seal. [2] ll. Full description

€ 1,500

Beautiful drawing book by an apprentice of the silversmith Bernardus Hayens

VISSER, Willem Abrahams. [Drawing book by an apprentice silversmith].
Emden, 1755-1759. 4to. Drawings on paper, some in red chalk and others in black ink with washes, some sketches of e.g. flowers in pencil on the verso of the leaves. Contemporary vellum, leather ties. 92 ll. Full description

€ 9,500

On the rights to and commitments of inheritances of deceased employees of the Dutch East India Company

[VOC - CHARTER]. Octroy bij haar Mogende verleend aan de Oostindische Compagnie dezer landen op t Regt van de Successien Ab intestato in Oost Indien, en op de reyse gints en herrewaarts in dato 10e Januarij 1661.
[Amsterdam], [Johannes Allart], [1661?]. Folio. Disbound, folded. 5, [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 750

Letter by the French minister of War to the favourite son of Louis XIV

[LETTER]. VOYSIN, Daniel. [Signed letter to Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine].
Versailles, 27 April 1710. Half sheet (32 x 21 cm). French letter in dark brown ink on laid paper in a legible hand, written on both sides, with a small part of the letter ending on the back, followed by the address and the Voysin's signature; the latter in black ink. [2] pp. Full description

€ 500

Manuscript course in the art of navigation, with figures in colour, including 2 volvelles

[NAVIGATION]. [VRIES, Klaas de, and others]. Schatkamer of konst der stuurlieden.
[Holland?], [ca. 1735/40?]. Folio (31.5 x 20.5 cm). A manuscript course in navigation written in brown ink on laid paper in a largely upright cursive hand, with 6 colour figures, including 2 volvelles, about 100 black and white diagrams, and numerous tables of data, highlighted with a yellow wash. Green paper wrappers (made from a discarded prospectus or the wrapper of an instalment of a book, [ca. 1865?]), later green cloth spine. [2 blank], 16, 19-109, [9 blank] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Skillful calligraphic copy-book by a student of the Haarlem schoolmaster Hermanus van der Laan

WALBEEK, Willem. Livre d'ecrire ... a l'ecole de Monsieur Hermanus vander Laan ...
Haarlem, 30 October 1749-13 January 1750. Folio (31 x 20 cm). Manuscript calligraphic copy-book with Dutch texts (except for the French title-page and colophon), written in black ink on laid paper, with a calligraphic title-page followed by 43 pages of calligraphic examples on 23 leaves. An additional loosely inserted leaf has one additional full-page example, also by Walbeek. Contemporary decorated paper wrappers (block-printed flower pattern with a dotted background). [1], [1 blank], [45], [1 blank] pp. plus 1 loosely inserted leaf. Full description

€ 2,500

Attributes of the Prophet: Arabic manuscript in black and red with text and ruling in geometric patterns

[WASF AL-RUSUL]. [Kitab Wasf al-Rusul wa al-Imama].
[Near East, ca. 1820?] Small folio (ca. 21 x 30 cm). Arabic manuscript in a naskh script, written in black ink on paper, with headings, key words and short passages in red, ruled in red throughout (often in complex patterns to form tables and geometric shapes) and with a diagrammatic human body also in red, 2 leaves with circular diagrams, some ruled leaves blank (text never completed). Contemporary limp leather. 74 ll. Full description

€ 12,000

A blank half-sheet of "Elephant" paper, ca. 1650 (35 x 52 cm), with an elephant watermark

[WATERMARK - ELEPHANT]. [A blank half-sheet of paper of the size called "Elephant"].
[France?, used in the Netherlands?], [ca. 1650]. Elephant folio leaf (35 x 52 cm). With a large (87 x 162 mm) elephant watermark. Full description

€ 475

Manuscript weaving instructions, illustrated with about 2000 cloth samples and colour-coded patterns

[WEAVING]. Schnürungsbuch.
"Vaals-Aachen" [on the Dutch-German border], Höhere technische Schule für Tuchfabrikation, [ca. 1900]. Oblong folio (24 x 32 cm). Manuscript in German, written in black ink in a neat and legible Latin hand on paperboard leaves, comprising short instructional texts and about 2000 colour-coded weaving patterns and small samples of woven cloth mounted on both sides of the leaves. Contemporary beige half cloth. [2 blank], [117], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Sailing orders in the aftermath of the Battle of Beachy Head

WICHERS, Wicher. [Manuscript letter to Hans Hartwich, Capiteyn op s'landts oorlogschip Harderwijk].
The Hague, 29 July 1690. Small folio (31 x 20.5 cm). Manuscript letter in in 7 lines on one page, with the signatures of Wicher Wichers and François Fagel, followed by two blank pages, and the name of the addressee in manuscript on the fourth page with a seal. [1], [2 blank], [1] pp. Full description

€ 575

Cheerful letter by the later first King of the Netherlands to his mother-in-law

WILLEM FREDERIK of Orange. [Autograph letter, signed, to Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt].
Berlin, 2 October 1791. 4to (23 x 18.5 cm). Autograph letter in French, in ink on laid paper, signed and dated. [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Decree signed by Dutch Stadholder and future English King William III

[MANUSCRIPT]. WILLIAM III, Prince of Orange. [Decree granting a salary to Johan Theodor, Baron of Friesheim, as chief bailiff and state prosecutor in 's-Hertogenbosch].
The Hague, 2 April 1681. Folio (31.5 x 20.5 cm). Written in brown ink on paper, with the armorial seal of William of Orange stamped on a decorative paper cut-out over red wax. [1], [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 5,000


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Autographs, Documents & Manuscripts