Autographs, Documents & Manuscripts

[BOOK OF HOURS]. [Book of Hours - use of Rouen].
Rouen, Normandy, France, ca. 1480. Small 4to (14.3 x 19.3 cm). Latin and French illuminated manuscript on vellum. Ruled in red ink for 14 lines per page (16 in the calendar). Gothic textura, major feasts in calendar in burnished gold, others alternately red or blue. Text pages illuminated with panel borders of flowers and plants on gold, and blue and gold stylised acanthus on a plain ground. Calendar has 24 small square miniatures set into panel borders; major text divisions marked by 12 large miniatures; 2 historiated initials; hundreds of smaller initials and line-fillers throughout. 18th-century French gold-tooled red calf over pasteboards, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. [160] ll. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - BOOK OF SECRETS - GERMAN]. [Medicinal recipes and incantations].
[Germany?], [ca. 1700?]. Small 8vo (16 x 10 cm). Manuscript in German with occasional Latin phrases, written on laid paper in brown and black ink in at least two German gothic cursive hands (the Latin phrases in Latin hands), a "tetragrammaton" diagram (rectangular with a St Andrews cross rather than star-shaped) with the name of (the archangel) Uriel and a "sator rotas" square. Lacking quire A and bifolium B1.8 (10 ll.?). Brown vellum(?) wrapper, sewn without supports at 3 stations. [4], 17-28, 31-78, [8] pp. Full description

[AUTOGRAPH]. BOREEL, G. [Autograph letter, signed, to ''Monsieur'']. 1 p. text. Full description

[BOTANICAL MANUSCRIPT - FRIAR LUC DAVID]. [Drop title:] Traite des plantes universelles par figures au naturel par le frere Luc david Recollet, chirrugien oculiste ...
[France], 1742. Large folio (ca. 45 x 28 cm). With 423 botanical drawings in bright watercolour. Manuscript with French text (including Latin names of the depicted plants), written in an 18th-century cursive hand. Most leaves contain a "Strasbourg bend" watermark: a fleur-de-lis above a shield with a diagonal band and the countermark "L Laroche" (identical to Heawood 65, but erroneously listed by him as "I Laroche", date: 1718-1721). The French papermaker Léonard Laroche (1646-1721) was active in the French province of Angoumois (now Charente) in the period 1673-1721.
Contemporary vellum, later endpapers. [2], 423, [1 blank], [19] ll. Full description

BOUGAINVILLE, Hyacinthe Yves Philippe Pottentien, baron de. [Autograph letters by Hyacinthe de Bougainville].
[France], 18[35?], 1837, 18[38], and 1845. (1) 17.7 x 12 cm; (2) 17.7 x 12 cm; (3) 15.6 x 10 cm; (4) 20.4 x 13.2 cm. All four letters written in French, in an early 19th century cursive in brown ink. With the blind-stamped initials "H.B" in the top right corner of each letter. Including:
(1) [Autograph letter from Hyacinthe de Bougainville to Gaspar, baron Gourgaud].
[France], Saturday 26 September 18[35?].
(2) [Autograph letter from Hyacinthe de Bougainville to Madame Delpeche].
[France], 25 March 1837.
(3) [Autograph letter from Hyacinthe de Bougainville to a "Cher Ami"].
[France], 13 April 18[38?].
(4) [Autograph letter from Hyacinthe de Bougainville to a "Cher Ami" and his best "Comrade"].
[France], 16 December 1845.
Folded. [1], [1 blank]; [2], [1 blank] [1]; [3], [1 blank]; [2], [2 blank] pp. Full description

[AUTOGRAPH]. BOUGAINVILLE, Hyacinthe-Yves-Philippe Potentien, Baron de. [Autograph letter, signed, to Baroness Hyde de Neuville (Anne Marguerite Henriette de Marigny Hyde de Neuville)].
[Brest?, ca. 1820/22]. Folded leaf (20.6 x 16.5 cm). In French. 2 1/2 pp. text. 2 1/2 pp. text. Full description

BOULTEN, F.A. [Manuscript ledger recording the time spent working on infrastructural projects].
[London?,] 1952-1955. Folio. Lined journal, each page ruled for monthly tallies, with some extra annotations. Contemporary cloth. [48] pp. Full description

[DRAWING]. BRANDS, Eugène. [Two manuscript invitations for an exhibition opening, each including an original drawing in colour].
[Amsterdam, 1948]. Each 14.7 x 11 cm. Pen-and-ink drawings; one with blue watercolour and the other with blue and yellow watercolour. 2 pp. Full description

[BRAZIL]. D'ORLEANS, Louis-Philippe. [MANUSCRIPT]. Ordonnance du Roi qui prescrit la publication de la convention relative à l'établissement d'un service de paquebots à vapeur entre la France et le Brésil.
Neuilly, 21 May 1844. Small folio (31.5 x 20 cm). Written in French in a very neat calligrapher's cursive. Sewn through 2 holes with a blue ribbon, gilt edges. [1], [1 blank], [14], [4 blank] pp. Full description

[BRITISH ARMOUR - TOWER OF LONDON - DUTCH MANUSCRIPT]. Beschrijving van de paarden wapenzaal in de Tower te London.
[The Netherlands, second quarter of the 19th century]. Ca. 21.5 x 17 cm. With 12 large, colourful ink drawings of knights on horseback, depicting various British kings and nobles, and a smaller ink drawing of knights in battle on the title-page. Contemporary green paper, over brown cloth, with a calligraphed title on the front in a baroque style floral frame, and a drawing of a knight on horseback on the back board within the same floral frame, blue speckled edges. [1], [1 blank], 105 pp. Full description