Manuscripts
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# 49939
GLADSTONES, G. E.
Manuscript letters from a South Australian colonist to his two brothers in London. Adelaide, 17 April 1854.
I. Entire letter, [4] pp., octavo bifolium, manuscript in ink on watermarked wove paper; headed ‘Adelaide, South Australia, April 17th 1854’, addressed to ‘My dear Bob’, and signed ‘your affectionately attached Bro., G. E. Gladstones’; the letter is written in a very legible hand, and is complete and in fine condition; it is accompanied by …
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![[MANUSCRIPT] A Journal or Narrative of the Proceedings betweene the Commissioners appointed by His Majestie, and the Commissioners Deputed by the States Generall, pursuant to the Treaty of Peace made at Westminster 9/19 Ffebruary 1673/4 Concerning a Treaty Marine to be observed throughout all the World. And also an Article particularly relateing to the English and Dutch East India Companyes Concluded in the yeare 1674.](https://dsfb-wp.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/app/uploads/2017/05/09135912/2017_DSFB_1491-300x300.jpg)
# 38366
[MANUSCRIPT] A Journal or Narrative of the Proceedings betweene the Commissioners appointed by His Majestie, and the Commissioners Deputed by the States Generall, pursuant to the Treaty of Peace made at Westminster 9/19 Ffebruary 1673/4 Concerning a Treaty Marine to be observed throughout all the World. And also an Article particularly relateing to the English and Dutch East India Companyes Concluded in the yeare 1674.
[London, 1674-75]. Folio (300 x 200 mm), old mottled calf gilt, spine with raised bands, gilt ornament, and contrasting title labels lettered in gilt; all edges gilt; manuscript written in English, Latin, Dutch and French in several contemporary secretarial hands; ff 269; clean and fresh throughout. An important contemporary manuscript record of the Mixed Commission established to draw up …
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# 19425
PRÉMARE, Joseph Henri-Marie de (1666-1736); JULIEN, Stanilas Aignan (1797-1873)
Premari Notitia Linguae sinicae. Ex Apographo, Ipsius Premari manu emendato, quod In Bibliotheca Regia Parisiensi servatuo, Accurate descripsit Stanislaus Julien.
[circa 1825]. Folio, modern full vellum binding by Aquarius; p. 466, [3 blank]; manuscript in ink entirely in the hand of Stanislas Julien; in Latin and Chinese, the Chinese characters written from left to right; title-page with wet-stamped monogram of sinologist Marquis d’Hervey de Saint-Denys (1822-1892), his manuscript collection label preserved on rear endpaper; tear …
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# 48892
Lieutenant Commander Charles Richard Cole Hamilton (1842-1911)
Logbook of HMS Zephyr, July 1873 – August 1876, recording visits to ports on the eastern Canadian seaboard (Halifax, Charlottetown, Picton and St John’s) as well as Bermuda and various ports in the West Indies.
Foolscap folio (330 x 210 mm), original leather-backed marbled papered boards (somewhat rubbed and worn) with manuscript title label to each board, worded ‘HMS Zephyr, Letters &c. June 1873’ and ‘HMS Zephyr, Orders &c, June 1873’, respectively; [79] pp., manuscript in ink, with copies of letters (entered at the front) and orders (entered at the …
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# 49088
[BRAGGE FAMILY]
English Georgian manuscript account ledger recording the sale of timber (Devon, 1767), bound in parchment cut from an indenture from the reign of Queen Anne (1707).
Duodecimo (168 x 107 mm), stitched “binder’s waste” parchment wrappers with manuscript in ink to front ‘Acct. of A Lot of Timber sold to Messrs. Haviland, Ayles, & Newel – 125 Trees – measured May 29th 1767‘, the verso of the parchment (i.e. the insides of the wrappers) showing part of the manuscript of an …
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# 47367
M. F. (Mabel Fitzgerald) & J. (Jean) B. S. (BARR SMITH); SWEET, Samuel White (photographer)
An Australian birthday book / compiled by M.F. and J.B.S. Printed for private circulation only. (Presented by Mabel Fairfax Barr Smith and Jean Balfour St Clare Barr Smith to their younger sister, Joanna Fitzgerald Barr Smith)
Adelaide : George Robertson, 1883. Octavo (185 x 130 mm), original brown calf, upper board ruled and lettered in gilt (re-backed, boards scuffed and lightly marked); all edges gilt; original floral endpapers; title-page with presentation inscription by the compilers ‘With Mabel & Jean Barr Smith’s Kind regards / March 2nd 1884’; dedication with ownership signature …
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# 44361
BROWNE, Thomas Aexander (1856-1925)
Presentation signature(s) of writer Thomas Alexander Browne (“Rolf Boldrewood”).
[Melbourne, ca. 1895]. Manuscript in ink on section of grey notepaper with letterhead of ‘Raveloe, South Yarra’, mounted on card, 80 x 115 mm; signed by Browne on two lines with his real name, “T A Browne” and with his nom de plume below, “Rolf Boldrewood”; small old glue mark at right edge, not affecting the signatures, else …
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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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# 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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![[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 …