Autographs, Documents & Manuscripts / Autographs & Letters

[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

[MANUSCRIPT - SIGNATURES - THE NETHERLANDS]. Handteekeningen van I. Gecommiteerde Raden van de Staten van Holland... II. Vorsten, staatsmannen, krijgsbevelhebbers, geleerden enz. ...
[The Netherlands, early 19th century]. Large 4to. With 162 signatures on 160 vellum or paper cuttings (mostly vellum, including 2 cuttings with 2 signatures each), mostly from the 17th century, some from the 18th century and a few from the early 19th century. Further with one large printed coat of arms (of the Wassenaer family) on the verso of the title page, an engraving (ca. 9.5 x 7 cm) showing the house of Jacob Cats on the verso of leaf 34, and with 19 printed coats of arms on the versos of several leaves (16 depicting a coat of arms with the name of the family below and 3 blank shields). The title-page, headings, and captions all in a very neat late-18th-century or early 19th-century cursive script, written in Dutch using brown ink. Splendid late 18th-century (ca. 1790) gold-tooled red morocco, sewn on 4 supports with a smooth spine, bound by the so-called Second Dissertation Bindery (Leiden ca. 1780-ca. 1794; Storm van Leeuwen IIA, pp. 350-358), with 4 closing loops on the front board (1 top edge, 2 fore-edge, 1 bottom edge) connecting to 4 closing knotted buttons on the back board. Both boards show 3 gold-tooled floral frames built up from 2 different rolls with small corner pieces in between, the inner frame with 4 larger floral corner pieces and a large lozenge shaped centrepiece built up from multiple impressions of 5 different floral and animal stamps. Further with a gold-tooled spine and board edges, gilt edges, and marbled endpapers. [1], 40 ll. Full description

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

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

[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

[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

MOOR, Edward. [Autograph letter to Louis Langlès, signed].
London, 18 March 1823. 4to. Folded. [4] pp. Full description

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

[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

[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