Manuscripts

  • [MANUSCRIPT] Louis XV forbids his subjects to conduct commerce in the South Seas.

    # 5437

    [PHILIPPE, DUC D'ORLEANS; LOUIS XV, KING OF FRANCE]

    [MANUSCRIPT] Louis XV forbids his subjects to conduct commerce in the South Seas.

    Manuscript letter, single folio sheet, dated 16 February 1716, signed Louis (in the hand of Louis XV’s secretary), countersigned by Louis Phélypeaux, Marquis de La Vrillière, Secretary of State, addressed to Cardin Le Bret, member of the parliament of Provence and nephew of the regent, the Duc d’Orléans, stating that a royal edict has been sent …

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  • Admiral Dupetit-Thouars : autograph letter signed, dated June 1845

    # 13799

    DUPETIT-THOUARS, Abel Aubert (1793-1864)

    Admiral Dupetit-Thouars : autograph letter signed, dated June 1845

    Manuscript in brown ink, single sheet, folding to form [4] sides, small octavo; written on 2 sides; headed Paris, le 5 Juin 1845, a note from Admiral Dupetit-Thouars to the publisher Baudry requesting copies of a course in philosophy; signed at the foot ‘A. Du Petit Thouars’; address and postal markings to the last side; …

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  • [DUMONT D’URVILLE] Admiral Charles Baudin : autograph letter signed, to Casimir Gide, dated February 1841

    # 12254

    BAUDIN, Charles (1784-1854)

    [DUMONT D’URVILLE] Admiral Charles Baudin : autograph letter signed, to Casimir Gide, dated February 1841

    A letter relating to the publication of Dumont d’Urville’s account of his second voyage in the Astrolabe, one of the most important Pacific and Antarctic voyages of the nineteenth century. Manuscript in ink, single sheet, quarto, headed Paris, 4 février 1841, a note from Admiral Charles Baudin, commander of the French fleet in Central and …

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  • [DUMONT D’URVILLE] Vincendon-Dumoulin : autograph letter signed, to Casimir Gide, circa 1842

    # 12253

    VINCENDON-DUMOULIN, Clément Adrien (1811-1858)

    [DUMONT D’URVILLE] Vincendon-Dumoulin : autograph letter signed, to Casimir Gide, circa 1842

    Single sheet, octavo, manuscript in brown ink, written on one side only, undated but probably 1842, a note from the hydrographer Vincendon-Dumoulin to Dumont d’Urville’s publisher, Casimir Gide, suggesting an amendment to one of the maps in the fourth volume of Dumont d’Urville’s Voyage au Pôle Sud (Vincendon-Dumoulin was the editor of the work, published in …

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  • [FREYCINET] Manuscript letter signed by Jacques Arago

    # 1453

    ARAGO, Jacques Étienne Victor (1790 - 1855)

    [FREYCINET] Manuscript letter signed by Jacques Arago

    Single sheet (250 x 270 mm), folded vertically, the blindstamped initials ‘J.A.’ impressed into the paper, with a short message written in ink in the hand of Arago’s secretary (Arago had lost his sight in 1837), signed in pencil in the frail hand of the aged Arago himself and dated 9 October 1853. The letter …

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  • [MARITIME] Loss of the “London”

    # 4932

    Anon.

    [MARITIME] Loss of the “London”

    Manuscript poem, comprised of thirty four-line stanzas written in ink on seven sides of four small quarto sized sheets of lined paper, unsigned but dated after the first seven stanzas Dec. 2 1877 and at the foot of the final page Nov. 7 1878. Complete, clean and legible. The steamer London, out of Plymouth and bound …

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  • [WHALING] Letter written from Auckland, New Zealand to New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1853

    # 15422

    BAIN & BURTT; [GIBBS, Alexander]

    [WHALING] Letter written from Auckland, New Zealand to New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1853

    Entire letter, single sheet folding to form [4] sides, quarto, closely written manuscript in ink on 3 sides, headed ‘Auckland, New Zealand, 8th February 1853’, addressed to ‘Alexander Gibbs Esqr., New Bedford’; signed at the foot ‘Your faithful obedt. servants, Bain & Burtt’; outer side with address panel, endorsed ‘via New York’, with ‘LONDON / …

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  • Group of correspondence from Henry Beit, land agent, Sydney, to E.V. Sandilands, cotton grower and Vice-Consul, Fiji. 1870-71.

    # 21090

    BEIT, Henry (1826-1881); SANDILANDS, Edward Vincent (1847-1871); GUTSCHMID, Felix von (1843-1905)

    Group of correspondence from Henry Beit, land agent, Sydney, to E.V. Sandilands, cotton grower and Vice-Consul, Fiji. 1870-71.

    Sydney businessman Henry Beit (1826-1881) was a land agent specialising in the sale of properties in outback New South Wales and Queensland, and also in the Fiji Islands. His correspondent, Edward Vincent Sandilands (1847-1871), was a young English cotton grower in the Yasawa Islands, Fiji, whose acquaintance Beit had presumably made when Sandilands had been …

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  • [MANUSCRIPT] Unpublished poem about a bushfire suicide, composed by an amateur Brisbane poet. Dated December 1861.

    # 20266

    MEE, Samuel Gill

    [MANUSCRIPT] Unpublished poem about a bushfire suicide, composed by an amateur Brisbane poet. Dated December 1861.

    Manuscript in ink on blue paper (245 x 195 mm), an untitled poem of 7 quatrains (4-line stanzas), with an extensive explanatory footnote; signed and dated at bottom margin in the same hand ‘Brisbane, December 2nd 1861 / Samuel Gill Mee’; verso with newspaper cuttings from 1861, suggesting that the sheet was removed from a commonplace book …

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  • A group of 90 H.P. Kraus rare book catalogues, 1940s-2000s

    # 19024

    H.P. KRAUS RARE BOOKS

    A group of 90 H.P. Kraus rare book catalogues, 1940s-2000s

    The legendary Austrian-born New York antiquarian book seller Hans Peter Kraus (1907-1988) has been described by William Reese as ‘without doubt the most successful and dominant rare book dealer in the world in the second half of the 20th century’. His catalogues, filled with a breathtaking array of mediaeval illuminated manuscripts, incunables (books printed before 1501), and rare …

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  • Manuscript diary recording an Englishman's outward voyage to New Zealand via Hobart Town, his tour of the North Island, and homeward voyage on s.s. Ruapehu, June - October 1894.

    # 19417

    GOSSELIN, Hellier Robert Hadley (1849-1924)

    Manuscript diary recording an Englishman’s outward voyage to New Zealand via Hobart Town, his tour of the North Island, and homeward voyage on s.s. Ruapehu, June – October 1894.

    Small pocket diary (163 x 113 mm), limp roan covers with later handwritten paper label ‘Old diaries / Hellier Gosselin’, approximately 75 pages neatly written in ink, recording the owner’s journey to New Zealand, out via the Cape of Good Hope and Hobart Town, home via Cape Horn (both voyages on s.s. Ruapehu), and his …

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  • [NEW SOUTH WALES] Roll of deaths in the 50th (Queen's Own) Regiment of Foot from April 1841 to May 1843

    # 19085

    Anon.

    [NEW SOUTH WALES] Roll of deaths in the 50th (Queen’s Own) Regiment of Foot from April 1841 to May 1843

    [Drop title] Nominal Roll of of Men who have become Non Effective Since the Regiment left New South Wales, up to the 1 May 1843, Cawnpore, 1843. Manuscript in ink on pale blue wove paper, folio (340 x 205 mm), 2 bifolia written on [6] sides in a neat clerical hand, manuscript column rules; a …

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  • [BAUDIN EXPEDITION] Autograph testimonial signed by Hamelin, commander of Le Naturaliste, written for one of his junior officers.

    # 18639

    HAMELIN, Emmanuel, Amiral (1768-1839)

    [BAUDIN EXPEDITION] Autograph testimonial signed by Hamelin, commander of Le Naturaliste, written for one of his junior officers.

    Manuscript in ink on bluish laid paper, 195 x 160 mm; place and revolutionary date of ‘Paris 1er thermidor an 11’ [20 July 1803], signed ‘Capitaine de frégate Commdt. Eel. Hamelin’; wet stamp of the Collection Deséglise; some foxing. Provenance: Collection Deséglise, France (late 19th – early 20th century), housed in the original Deséglise manila folder with manuscript …

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  • [MANUSCRIPT; ARCTIC] Extrait d'une Relation de Groenland addressée à M. de la Mothe le Vayer.

    # 18234

    Peyrère, Isaac de la (1596-1676)

    [MANUSCRIPT; ARCTIC] Extrait d’une Relation de Groenland addressée à M. de la Mothe le Vayer.

    [Drop title]. [No date, but circa 1800]. Unbound manuscript in ink on laid paper, 225 x 165 mm, 3 1/4 pages; initialled ‘D’ at the foot; in very good condition, clean and legible. This manuscript is an extract from a work entitled Une Relation du Groenland (1647), written by Isaac de La Peyrère (1596-1676) while he was …

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  • [CRIMEAN WAR] Manuscript compiled by a French cotton merchant and soldier, 1852-54.

    # 16492

    PROUTIERE, Réné

    [CRIMEAN WAR] Manuscript compiled by a French cotton merchant and soldier, 1852-54.

    Unbound manuscript in ink on laid paper, large octavo (200 x 150 mm), original stitching, first page with owner’s inscription ‘Cahier de coton de 1852 et 1853. Monsieur Proutière Réné, soldat au 35eme de ligne 1er Bataillon 4ème Compagnie, à Inkermann (Crimée) armée D’orient Inkermann’; [9] pages of accounts relating to the purchase and sale of …

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  • [EASTER ISLAND] Double Bay from South Head Road. [1853]

    # 16001

    CROFT, Thomas; TERRY, F.C. [Frederic Casemero] (artist), 1825-1869; SANDS & KENNY

    [EASTER ISLAND] Double Bay from South Head Road. [1853]

    Sydney & Melbourne: Sands & Kenny, [c.1867]. Illustrated letter paper, sheet 252 x 200 mm (lacking the blank third and fourth sides), steel engraving in black ink 118 x 168 mm (irregular), signed in image ‘Terry, del., 1853’; the letter paper is written on both remaining sides and bears a letter from the Tahiti-based merchant Thomas …

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