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Autographs, Documents & Manuscripts / Manuscripts & Documents

Appealing heraldic manuscript on the English nobility
with more than 1050 beautifully executed coats of arms showing heraldic craftmanship

CLEMENTS, Joseph and J. GOLDING. (title-page:) Heraldry.
[England (Kent?), ca. 1775-1795]. Large 4to (ca. 27 x 21 cm). Manuscript in English on paper, mostly containing coats of arms with captions and a hand-written index. Completely written in brown ink in a neat 18th-century hand. With a hand-drawn and contemporary hand-coloured title-page, 108 contemporary hand-coloured smaller coats of arms showing motives on the crest and 1050 contemporary hand-coloured larger coats of arms of English noble families. Contemporary sheepskin, blind-tooled boards and spine, marbled endpapers. [2], 183 ll. Full description
€ 9,000
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Memoirs of an important Portuguese diplomat at the court of Louis XIV

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
€ 7,500
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A scarce Arabic bestiary

DAMIRI, Muhammad ibn Musa al-. Kitab Hayat al-Hayawan [= Book of the life of animals].
Meknes, Morocco, 1267 AH [= 1851 CE]. 4to (19 x 23 cm). Arabic manuscript on paper, brown maghribi script in two hands with important words and phrases in red and blue. With an illuminated head-piece at the start of the text in red, blue, green, and gold. Contemporary gold-tooled red leather with a fore-edge flap. 62 ll. Full description
€ 7,500
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Autograph manuscript giving a captivating eyewitness account of the 1832 siege of Antwerp

[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
€ 1,750
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Manuscript fortification plan of Sluis, signed by Napoleon's future Minister of War

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
€ 2,250
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The rare book and manuscript collection of a Franco-Russian oriental scholar, diplomat, and secret agent

[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
€ 1,050,000
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Eyewitness account of a 1570 diplomatic mission to the Ottoman court,
with 28 fine original colour drawings and samples of Turkish decorated paper

[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
€ 180,000
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1558 declaration signed by the great botanist Dodoens in his capacity as Mechelen churchwarden

[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
€ 12,500
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Unpublished calendar of historical events, especially the birth and death dates of Dutch artists,
in richly gold-tooled morocco by the so-called Rocaille-and-flower bindery

[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
€ 4,950
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