Europe / Autographs, Documents & Manuscripts

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

RUE, Louis Félix de la. Etat armorial de noblesse, chevalerie, & dignités accordés par S.M.I.R.A. depuis son avenement au Thrône jusqu' aujourd'hui dédié a monsieur de Wavrans ...
Brussels, 1775.
With: [Collection of hand-painted coats of arms of European noble families in the Southern Netherlands].
8vo. With an engraved title page and 16 engraved plates containing a total of 342 coats of arms (6 blank; mostly 20 or 24 to a page), together with a collection of 415 hand-drawn and painted coats of arms (6 to a page), vividly coloured and highlighted with gold and silver paint, with the names of the noble families captioned below in a neat 18th-century hand in brown ink. Later half calf, marbled paper sides, title in gold on spine, marbled endpapers, red edges. 45, [2], [1 blank]; [102] ll. including some blanks. Full description

[SMITH, Henry Ecroyd]. Notes of a three weeks ramble in North Yorkshire and South Durham.
[England], [18]61. Folio (28.5 x 23 cm). With numerous lithographs, copper- and steel-engravings, and newspaper clippings mounted on the leaves, a folding map of Russia added between pages 63 and 64, and a blank leaf from the guest book of the Hotel des Boulangers in Bern added between pages 75 and 76. All leaves are blind-ruled. Contemporary gold- and blind-tooled blue sheepskin. [1], "118" [= 116, final 61 pages blank], [1 blank] pp. Full description

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

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

[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

[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

[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

[WEDDING ALBUM - THE NETHERLANDS - GERMANY]. Zur Erinnerung an die Hochzeits-feierlichkeiten von Ella de Ridder und August Janssen in Frankfurt a/M im August 1896.
(Colophon:) Amsterdam, Calligrafie und Druck von Johan. K. Koning, [1896]. Large folio (ca. 51 x 33 cm). Wedding album comprising five manuscript texts of occasional plays (4 in German, 1 in Dutch), written in a neat cursive in blank ink on thick laid paper, each illuminated with a 4-line decorated initial in red, blue and white on a gold/bronze field, richly decorated with penwork in black ink (extending down into the inner margin). Each text is preceded by a letterpress title leaf set in neo-Gothic type, also used for the general title, several text leaves, and the colophon. Further with 1 gouache illustration on grey paper (sheet size ca. 32 x 24.5 cm, mounted on the first leaf) showing a bouquet of flowers, 14 printed ephemera relating to the "Polterabend" (wedding-eve party) and the wedding on single or double leaves in various sizes (the wedding announcement/introduction to the wedding-eve party and attached is a photo of the couple in a circular frame of red wax, 5 menu cards, the lyrics to 6 German songs, a musical score by the German composer Wilhelm Aletter (1867-1934), and an announcement of the comic opera Des Teufels Antheil by the French composer Daniel Auber (1782-1871), performed by the Frankfurter Opernhaus on 25 August 1896 in Frankfurt am Main. Also with two manuscript wedding speeches in German, written in black ink on paper, two mounted albumen prints, the first showing two actors dressed as a Frisian farmer and his wife and the other showing a man in Chinese dress, 56 large ornamental vignettes printed in red or blue throughout, 17 ornamental tailpieces printed in black, blue, and red, and some dried flowers mounted on several leaves. Contemporary gold-tooled burgundy leather, the front board with a large gold-stamped monogram as a centrepiece (the intertwined initials of the couple: AJ and EdR) with the date ("24-26 August") above and the year ("1896") below lettered in gold, both boards show a single fillet frame along the outer edges, gold-tooled turn-ins, beige watered silk endleaves. [60] ll. Full description

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