Manuscripts
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# 48879
EMPRESS SHOTOKU-TENNO (718 - 770 CE)
Hyakumantō Dhāraṇī (百万塔陀羅尼) : an example of the earliest printed text that can be accurately dated (with the Jishin’in darani)
Japan : Nara period [764-770 CE]. Three-tier turned wooden pagoda made of hinoki (Japanese cypress), well preserved with remnants of the original white gesso wash made from seashells in the eighth century, very slight chips to the rims of the three tiers, separate turned katsura wood finial (edge chips to the rings), overall height 218 …
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![[LORD SYDNEY] Thomas Townshend’s Minute Book as a Commissioner for Westminster Road Building and Civic Improvement in the 1760s.](https://douglasstewart.com.au/app/uploads/2025/06/2025_DSFB_3231-300x300.jpg)
# 47384
TOWNSHEND, Thomas (later 1st Viscount Sydney) (1733-1800)
[LORD SYDNEY] Thomas Townshend’s Minute Book as a Commissioner for Westminster Road Building and Civic Improvement in the 1760s.
Small octavo notebook, 180 x 115 mm, original marbled wrappers (detached front wrapper held in place with transparent tape); inner front wrapper with the name ‘Mr. Townshend’ in a secretarial hand; [76] pp., manuscript in ink, comprising neatly and densely written minutes on the recto and verso of every leaf, in two different secretarial hands …
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# 46793
BIRDWOOD, William Riddell, Field Marshal, 1st Baron Birdwood (1865-1951)
Birdwood of Anzac : autograph on card
Bold signature in black ink on card (87 x 113 mm), ‘Birdwood of Anzac, F.M. / 28 Nov. 50’; accompanied by its original (pre-addressed) mailing envelope endorsed by Birdwood ‘F-M. W. R. Birdwood’; original collector’s typed biographical information on Birdwood to verso; fine condition. Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood (1865-1951), was the …
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# 47876
CANOVA, Antonio (1757-1822)
Antonio Canova, Italian sculptor : autograph note signed, presented to Mary Skinner on her visit to Canova’s studio to view his second Colossal Horse, just finished in clay. Rome, 22 February 1821.
Manuscript in ink on laid paper, 80 x 240 mm (trimmed slightly irregularly); the signed note on the recto is in Canova’s hand, and reads: ‘L’amabilissima Signora Maria Skinner, essendo venuta a vedere il mio secondo cavallo colossale terminato in creta appunto quest’oggi, ha voluti ch’io scriva il mio nome, qui sotto. Roma, 22 febro. 1821. …
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# 46193
CAVE, Nick (1957- )
Original autograph first draft of the lyrics to the Grinderman song “Fire Boy”. London, July 2009.
Nick Cave’s own first draft of the lyrics to Fire Boy, written for Grinderman, his Bad Seeds side project. Fire Boy was recorded in London in late July 2009 and appeared as an iTunes bonus track on the album Grinderman 2, released in September 2010 on Mute Records in the United Kingdom and ANTI- in the United States. Handwritten by Cave …
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![[TIBET] Manuscript letter by one of the first two western missionaries permitted to evangelise in a traditionally Tibetan cultural territory, mailed to the United States from Labrang Kansu (Western China), 1948.](https://douglasstewart.com.au/app/uploads/2025/03/2025_DSFB_1818-300x300.jpg)
# 46751
GRIEBENOW, Blanche
[TIBET] Manuscript letter by one of the first two western missionaries permitted to evangelise in a traditionally Tibetan cultural territory, mailed to the United States from Labrang Kansu (Western China), 1948.
Manuscript letter in the hand of missionary Blanche Griebenow, 4 pp. duodecimo (125 x 100 mm); headed Labrang Kansu, W. China, September 26, 1948, it is addressed to ‘Dear Miss Elliott’, and is signed at the foot ‘Sincerely yours, M. G. and Blanche W. Griebenow; the letter is accompanied by its original envelope (105 x …
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# 47148
[IMPERIAL JAPNESE NAVY]
Calling card of the Gun Room Officers of the Japanese battleship “Kongo”, presented at Melbourne, May 1900.
Buff-coloured card, 77 x 120 mm, lithograph printed on the recto in Japanese characters [Officers’ Quarters, battleship Kongo – our translation]; verso neatly inscribed in ink in English ‘The Gun Room Officers / I[mperial] J[apanese] M[ajesty’s] S[hip] “Kongo” / P.P.C. [i.e. Pour prendre congé]’; recto with some damage at one edge due to removal from an album …
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![[MANUSCRIPT] A naval cadet on HMAS Tingira writes a troubled note to his girlfriend. Rose Bay (Sydney), 1912-14.](https://douglasstewart.com.au/app/uploads/2025/07/2025_DSFB_4347-300x300.jpg)
# 47837
"George H. D."
[MANUSCRIPT] A naval cadet on HMAS Tingira writes a troubled note to his girlfriend. Rose Bay (Sydney), 1912-14.
Manuscript in ink, 2 1/2 pp. on octavo bifolium of notepaper with illustrated letterhead featuring a fan with a Japanese view; headed ‘L Mess, HMAS Tingira, Rose Bay, Sydney’, without date (but almost certainly just prior to WW1); addressed ‘My Dear Hazel’, and signed at the foot ‘George’, with a postscript initialled ‘G. H. D.’; …
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![[GREEK WAR OF INDEPENDENCE] John Smith, of the London Philhellenic Committee, writes to the Swiss benefactor Jean-Gabriel Eynard in Geneva, apologising for the lack of British financial support for the Greek nationalist cause. London, 29 December 1826.](https://douglasstewart.com.au/app/uploads/2025/08/2025_DSFB_4379-300x300.jpg)
# 47846
SMITH, John (1767-1842)
[GREEK WAR OF INDEPENDENCE] John Smith, of the London Philhellenic Committee, writes to the Swiss benefactor Jean-Gabriel Eynard in Geneva, apologising for the lack of British financial support for the Greek nationalist cause. London, 29 December 1826.
Entire letter, 2 1/4 pp. quarto (225 x 180 mm), manuscript in ink on laid paper; headed ‘London, Grosvenor Square, 29th Dec. 1826’, the letter is written in John Smith’s hand and is signed by him at the foot ‘Your most obd. servt, John Smith’; the outer panel is addressed ‘Mons. Le Ch[evalier] J. G. …
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# 47347
[SAINT JEROME, c.347-420]
A 10th-century manuscript fragment in Caroline (Carolingian) minuscule, with part of Jerome’s Preface to the Commentary on Matthew.
[Holy Roman Empire, late tenth century]. Manuscript fragment on vellum, 312 x 216 mm (slightly irregular), recto with 32 complete lines of text in Caroline minuscule, comprising a portion of the last section of Jerome’s Preface to the Commentary on Matthew; on the right is the partially preserved text (the left third only) of the …
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![[FIRST FLEET] Midshipman Newton Fowell, on board HMS Sirius at sea, off Rio de Janeiro, 6 August 1787: autograph letter addressed to his father, John Fowell.](https://douglasstewart.com.au/app/uploads/2024/04/2024_DSFB_2154-300x300.jpg)
# 41117
FOWELL, Newton Digby (1768-1790)
[FIRST FLEET] Midshipman Newton Fowell, on board HMS Sirius at sea, off Rio de Janeiro, 6 August 1787: autograph letter addressed to his father, John Fowell.
Entire letter, 1 page, quarto, manuscript in ink on the first side of a bifolium, laid paper watermarked with Britannia and GR surmounted by crown; dated 6 August 1787 and signed N. Fowell, addressed to John Fowell Esq., Black Hall, S. Brent, Devonshire, England, with DOVER/SHIP-LRE hand-stamp on the face and rated in ms. 1/7 (to be …
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# 43114
[ORSMOND, John Muggridge, 1788-1856]
Autograph letter in the Tahitian language, written by a chief of Bora Bora to the LMS missionary, Rev. John Muggridge Orsmond. Bora Bora, 1822.
Manuscript in brown ink on laid paper, 3 pp. on quarto bifolium, 175 x 150 mm; letter in the Tahitian language addressed to missionary Rev. John Orsmond at Tahiti, written entirely in the hand of an unidentified chief of Bora Bora, signed ‘Porapora’ at the foot; undated, but probably 1822 (see below); traces of original …
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![[LA PÉROUSE EXPEDITION] Handwritten document requesting additional equipment for the Astrolabe, written on board the ship prior to its departure from Brest, dated 10 June 1785.](https://douglasstewart.com.au/app/uploads/2024/11/2024_DSFB_6590-300x300.jpg)
# 45572
MONTI, Anne-Georges-Augustin de (1753-1788)
[LA PÉROUSE EXPEDITION] Handwritten document requesting additional equipment for the Astrolabe, written on board the ship prior to its departure from Brest, dated 10 June 1785.
Manuscript in ink on laid paper watermarked TM, 1 page, quarto (210 x 170 mm). [Brest], ‘à bord [l’Astrolabe], le 10 juin 1785’. Headed ‘pour L’astrolabe’, and signed at the foot ‘de Monti’, the note comprises a short list of equipment that is required for the vessel: ‘two rudder bars … a spike for the …
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# 47317
BONNARD, Pierre (1867-1947)
Pierre Bonnard, artist : autograph card, signed, addressed to his gallerist Paul Brame in Cannes.
[Villa du Bosquet, Le Cannet : n.d., but c.1943]. Mailing card, 105 x 150 mm, the verso with an autograph signed note in violet ink in the hand of Pierre Bonnard, arranging a meeting with his gallerist, Paul Brame, in Cannes on the coming Wednesday afternoon; the front has an imprinted stamp with the bust …
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# 47541
SCOLLAY, Susan
Love and devotion : from Persia and beyond (hardcover)
Melbourne : Macmillan Art in association with the State Library of Victoria and the Bodleian Library, Oxford, 2012. Quarto, boards in dustjacket, pp. xiii, 221, illustrated. ‘Jointly published by Macmillan and the State Library of Victoria in association with the Bodleian Library, Oxford, this book accompanies an exhibition of original manuscripts relating to Persian poetry …
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# 47444
SCOLLAY, Susan
Love and devotion : from Persia and beyond (deluxe edition)
Melbourne : Macmillan Art in association with the State Library of Victoria and the Bodleian Library, Oxford, 2012. Quarto, deluxe binding of full cloth with pictorial inlay lettered in gilt, pp. xiii, 221, housed in cloth slipcase with ribbon draw. The deluxe edition, of which only a few copies were printed for presentation. ‘Jointly published …