Autographs, Documents & Manuscripts

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

[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

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

CUNHA BROCHADO, José da. Memorias particulares, ou anecdotes dal'orte de França apontadas por Joze da Cunha Brochádo, notempo em que foi Enviado quela mesma Córte.
[Madrid, ca. 1725]. Folio. Contemporary gold-tooled marbled calf, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, marbled endpapers, red edges with brown speckles. [1], [1 blank], 396, [4 blank] pp. Full description

[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

[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

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

[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

[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

[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