Autographs, Documents & Manuscripts

[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

[ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT - BOOK OF HOURS (DIOCESE OF UTRECHT)]. [Incipit, A2r:] Alst my gaet niet nae mij[n] syn / Soe wil ic my liden en[de] swyghe stil ...
[Diocese of Utrecht, the County of Holland], 1488. Large 8vo (19 x 13.5 x 4 cm). Written in Dutch on vellum by 2 gothic textura hands in 1 column (20 lines/page for the first hand for the main text and calendar; 22 lines/page for the additions written by the second hand). All leaves are numbered in pencil in the upper margin of the rectos by a 19th- or 20th-century hand. Richly iluminated by the Master of the Brussels Hours of the Bezborodko Group, being one of the stylistic groups of the Masters of the Dark Eyes, with 6 full-page miniatures, 2 historiated initials and 4 larger decorated initials, several smaller decorated initials, and many 1-line lombardic initials in blue and red. Also with a 6-line blue penwork initial on a red penwork ground, being a contemporary addition. Also with three- and four-marginal border decoration (an uncoloured background filled in with small dots or short tendrils in black, show acanthus leaves in different colours, various flowers and several brightly coloured birds and fabulous beings, with gold and black/white dots among them). Contemporary blind-tooled calf over rounded ("cushioned") wooden boards. With the original brass catch- and anchor-plates, the latter with remnants of the leather fastenings, and the later silk red ribbon markers loosely preserved. 144 ll. including 6 inserted leaves with miniatures and 2 blank endpapers used as paste-downs. Full description

[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

[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

[INDIA - SHIP JOURNAL - EAST INDIA COMPANY]. Journal of the proceedings of the hon[oura]ble(?) East India Company ship Winchelsea.
[Aboard the Winchelsea, written and drawn at sea, 1822-1823]. 3 volumes. 8vo. The two sketchbooks contain a total of ca. 100 pages of sketches of ships, done in pencil, including 1 page containing signal flags in colour. With: [Two sketchbooks with pencil drawings of ships]. Contemporary half gold-tooled brown calf. [1 blank], [1], [155]; [98]; [98] ll. Full description

[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

[JOMARD, Edmé François]. Arithmétique élémentaire ou tableaux d'arithmétique composés selon les principes et assujetis aux procédés de l'enseignement mutuel; par M. Jomard, secrétaire de la Societé pour l'enseignement élémentaire.
[France?, ca. 1822]. Small folio (ca. 29.5 x 19 cm). With 6 folding text leaves. Contemporary quarter vellum. [1], 88, [1 blank] ll. Full description

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

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

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