Autographs, Documents & Manuscripts

[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

DORN, Bernard. [21 autograph letters, signed, to Marie-Félicité Brosset].
Saint Petersburg, ca. 1840-1879.
With: (2) [Manuscript chronological numbered list of 34 publications by Dorn, 1843-1865].
[Saint Petersburg, ca. 1865].
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. 20 letters [4] pp. each (some including blanks); 1 letter [1, 1 blank] pp.; list of publications [4] pp. Full description

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

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

[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

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