Autographs, Documents & Manuscripts / Manuscripts & Documents

VISSER, Willem Abrahams. [Drawing book by an apprentice silversmith].
Emden, 1755-1759. 4to. Drawings on paper, some in red chalk and others in black ink with washes, some sketches of e.g. flowers in pencil on the verso of the leaves. Contemporary vellum, leather ties. 92 ll. Full description

[VOC - CHARTER]. Octroy bij haar Mogende verleend aan de Oostindische Compagnie dezer landen op t Regt van de Successien Ab intestato in Oost Indien, en op de reyse gints en herrewaarts in dato 10e Januarij 1661.
[Amsterdam], [Johannes Allart], [1661?]. Folio. Disbound, folded. 5, [3 blank] pp. Full description

[NAVIGATION]. [VRIES, Klaas de, and others]. Schatkamer of konst der stuurlieden.
[Holland?], [ca. 1735/40?]. Folio (31.5 x 20.5 cm). A manuscript course in navigation written in brown ink on laid paper in a largely upright cursive hand, with 6 colour figures, including 2 volvelles, about 100 black and white diagrams, and numerous tables of data, highlighted with a yellow wash. Green paper wrappers (made from a discarded prospectus or the wrapper of an instalment of a book, [ca. 1865?]), later green cloth spine. [2 blank], 16, 19-109, [9 blank] pp. Full description

VRIES, Klaas de and Sietse DAUWES. Konst der stierlieden[!] voor deezen beschreeven van den navigateur Klaas de Vries. Uijtgewerkt door Sietse Dauwes. Van de Lemmer. Begonnen, in den jaare 1814. Maand Januarij.
Lemmer, Friesland, The Netherlands, 1814. Folio (32 x 21 cm). With more than 350 instructive diagrams and drawings and several tables. The Dutch text is written in a clearly legible, 19th-century cursive hand in brown ink. Contemporary quarter red sheepskin and blue marbled paper sides. [1], [100], [115 blank] ll. Full description

WALBEEK, Willem. Livre d'ecrire ... a l'ecole de Monsieur Hermanus vander Laan ...
Haarlem, 30 October 1749-13 January 1750. Folio (31 x 20 cm). Manuscript calligraphic copy-book with Dutch texts (except for the French title-page and colophon), written in black ink on laid paper, with a calligraphic title-page followed by 43 pages of calligraphic examples on 23 leaves. An additional loosely inserted leaf has one additional full-page example, also by Walbeek. Contemporary decorated paper wrappers (block-printed flower pattern with a dotted background). [1], [1 blank], [45], [1 blank] pp. plus 1 loosely inserted leaf. Full description

[WASF AL-RUSUL]. [Kitab Wasf al-Rusul wa al-Imama].
[Near East, ca. 1820?] Small folio (ca. 21 x 30 cm). Arabic manuscript in a naskh script, written in black ink on paper, with headings, key words and short passages in red, ruled in red throughout (often in complex patterns to form tables and geometric shapes) and with a diagrammatic human body also in red, 2 leaves with circular diagrams, some ruled leaves blank (text never completed). Contemporary limp leather. 74 ll. Full description

[WATERMARK - ELEPHANT]. [A blank half-sheet of paper of the size called "Elephant"].
[France?, used in the Netherlands?], [ca. 1650]. Elephant folio leaf (35 x 52 cm). With a large (87 x 162 mm) elephant watermark. Full description

[WEAVING]. Schnürungsbuch.
"Vaals-Aachen" [on the Dutch-German border], Höhere technische Schule für Tuchfabrikation, [ca. 1900]. Oblong folio (24 x 32 cm). Manuscript in German, written in black ink in a neat and legible Latin hand on paperboard leaves, comprising short instructional texts and about 2000 colour-coded weaving patterns and small samples of woven cloth mounted on both sides of the leaves. Contemporary beige half cloth. [2 blank], [117], [1 blank] 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

[MANUSCRIPT]. WILLIAM III, Prince of Orange. [Decree granting a salary to Johan Theodor, Baron of Friesheim, as chief bailiff and state prosecutor in 's-Hertogenbosch].
The Hague, 2 April 1681. Folio (31.5 x 20.5 cm). Written in brown ink on paper, with the armorial seal of William of Orange stamped on a decorative paper cut-out over red wax. [1], [3 blank] pp. Full description