Autographs, Documents & Manuscripts / Alba Amicorum

[ALBUM AMICORUM - EQUESTRIANISM - HERALDRY]. [Late 16th- and early 17th-century album amicorum].
[North-western Europe (specifically the vicinity of Brussels?)], [1585-1615]. 4to. With 45 hand-coloured and highlighted in gold engraved plates of horses and their riders from Europe, North Africa, and the Near and Middle East, numbered 1-50 (skipping nos. 2, 21, 27, 35, and 36), 46 hand-coloured and highlighted in gold engraved heraldic plates (sometimes filled in with manuscript notes), 2 hand-coloured manuscript coats-of-arms on l. 15v, and 1 black and gold hand-coloured manuscript coat of arms on the back paste-down. Contemporary elaborately gold- and blind-tooled mottled calf, with gold lettering on both boards (front: RVB HZC VFB C.) (back: 1590). 164 ll. Full description

[ALBUM AMICORUM & SCRAPBOOK - THE NETHERLANDS]. [Album amicorum of a Miss van Boetzelaer (?)].
Heerenveen, 1831-1849. Oblong 4to. Manuscript with many contributions in French and English, a single contribution in Dutch and a four-line verse in German, mainly written in the same hand, probably of the owner of this album. With 45 mounted or occasionally loosely inserted drawings, paintings and prints in various formats, some coloured by contemporary hands. Contemporary gold- and blind-tooled brown morocco, each board richly decorated with frames and an oblong lozenge-shaped centrepiece, gilt edges. [96] ll. Full description

GYSELAAR (GIJSELAAR), Johanna Maria Nicoletta de. Album amicorum.
Gorkum, Leiden, Warmond, Delft, Amsterdam, The Hague, Laarwoude, Zuidlaren and Assen, 1800-1805. 8vo (14.5 x 10 cm). Manuscript album amicorum on paper, with entries in Dutch, French and German. With 3 watercolours of flowers, a small watercolour of roses, and a fine washed pen drawing of a view on a lake with fishermen at work by the owner's niece, J.M. de Gyselaar. Contemporary calf, richly gold-tooled spine and turn-ins, yellow silk endpapers. 192 pp. Full description

[WEDDING ALBUM - THE NETHERLANDS - GERMANY]. Zur Erinnerung an die Hochzeits-feierlichkeiten von Ella de Ridder und August Janssen in Frankfurt a/M im August 1896.
(Colophon:) Amsterdam, Calligrafie und Druck von Johan. K. Koning, [1896]. Large folio (ca. 51 x 33 cm). Wedding album comprising five manuscript texts of occasional plays (4 in German, 1 in Dutch), written in a neat cursive in blank ink on thick laid paper, each illuminated with a 4-line decorated initial in red, blue and white on a gold/bronze field, richly decorated with penwork in black ink (extending down into the inner margin). Each text is preceded by a letterpress title leaf set in neo-Gothic type, also used for the general title, several text leaves, and the colophon. Further with 1 gouache illustration on grey paper (sheet size ca. 32 x 24.5 cm, mounted on the first leaf) showing a bouquet of flowers, 14 printed ephemera relating to the "Polterabend" (wedding-eve party) and the wedding on single or double leaves in various sizes (the wedding announcement/introduction to the wedding-eve party and attached is a photo of the couple in a circular frame of red wax, 5 menu cards, the lyrics to 6 German songs, a musical score by the German composer Wilhelm Aletter (1867-1934), and an announcement of the comic opera Des Teufels Antheil by the French composer Daniel Auber (1782-1871), performed by the Frankfurter Opernhaus on 25 August 1896 in Frankfurt am Main. Also with two manuscript wedding speeches in German, written in black ink on paper, two mounted albumen prints, the first showing two actors dressed as a Frisian farmer and his wife and the other showing a man in Chinese dress, 56 large ornamental vignettes printed in red or blue throughout, 17 ornamental tailpieces printed in black, blue, and red, and some dried flowers mounted on several leaves. Contemporary gold-tooled burgundy leather, the front board with a large gold-stamped monogram as a centrepiece (the intertwined initials of the couple: AJ and EdR) with the date ("24-26 August") above and the year ("1896") below lettered in gold, both boards show a single fillet frame along the outer edges, gold-tooled turn-ins, beige watered silk endleaves. [60] ll. Full description