Manuscript
We offer free shipping
BOTTIGELLA, Giovanni Matteo; & Roberto Sanseverino.
Viaggio in Terra Santa. 1459
£475,000
EXCEPTIONALLY IMPORTANT ITALIAN/LOMBARD LANGUAGE MANUSCRIPT of a little-known pilgrimage to the Holy Land made from Venice to Jaffa by sea in 1458-9, containing "the most...
Quarto (220 × 155 mm), 133 unnumbered leaves written in a professional scribal hand in ink, about 29 lines per page on lined vellum, with contemporary annotations... Read more
SHARPE, Bartholomew, & William Hack.
To the Serene Mai.ties of Charles; the second. King of great Britaigne, France and Ireland. This following Journall of our transactions in the South Seas is humbly presented by your Ma:ties ever loyal c.1682
£75,000
An important manuscript journal of the buccaneer Bartholomew Sharpe's expeditions on the coast of South America from 5 April 1680 to 28 January 1681/2, identified as part of a royal...
Small folio (305 ×193 mm). Near contemporary mottled calf, central double fillet gilt panels, red morocco label to the spine, lettered "Sharpe south sea 1680",... Read more
[CLEMENS, Samuel Langhorne] TWAIN, Mark.
Autograph manuscript of chapter 48 of A Tramp Abroad. [c. 1879–80]
£50,000
Twain's autograph manuscript of "My Collection of Bric-A-Brac", chapter XX of A Tramp Abroad, originally published in 1880. This chapter details Twain's passion for collecting...
Octavo (200 × 135 mm), 43-leaf autograph manuscript in purple and black ink and pencil, generally rectos only, with numerous corrections, each leaf on a... Read more
ROWLING, J. K.
The Ballad of Nearly Headless Nick. [2005]
£37,500
Fair manuscript copy in the author's hand of The Ballad of Nearly Headless Nick, originally written for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. In the spring of 2005 Scottish...
2 page manuscript poem (each page 300 × 210 mm), handwriting to rectos only, the first with the author's gilt owl header, both bordered in blue. Each page... Read more
TIMLIN, William Mitcheson.
The Arrival. 1923]
£37,500
Born in Northumberland, Timlin emigrated to South Africa, where he studied art and practised as an architect. The Ship That Sailed to Mars (1923) is his only published book, a...
Original watercolour on paper (image 270 × 247 mm; framed 615 × 540 mm). Together with two original leaves of accompanying calligraphic text: the contents... Read more
WHITMAN, Walt.
The Complete Writings. 1902
£17,500
Author's Manuscript Edition. Limited to 32 numbered sets on Whatman paper of which this is number 28, signed by the publisher, with a page of Whitman's manuscript and a notarized...
10 volumes, large octavo. Contemporary full black morocco, titles and floral decoration to spines gilt, decoration to boards gilt, twin rule to turn-ins gilt, marbled... Read more
CHRISTIE, Agatha.
Original typescripts for Sleeping Murder and Curtain. [c. 1940s]
£15,000
Original typescripts of Agatha Christie's last published novels, the concluding cases of Poirot and Miss Marple. Christie wrote the books during the early 1940s and had them sealed...
2 volumes, octavo. Typescript, original black cloth backed orange wrappers, green label and embossed stamp to front cover. Typescript, original red wrappers. Housed in... Read more
MITFORD, Nancy.
Annotated Typescript Draft of Madame de Pompadour. 1953
£15,000
Mitford's hand-corrected draft of her biography Madame de Pompadour. One of the author's best regarded works. She seemed from her background and temperament perfectly suited to...
353 page typed carbon with annotations in the author's hand. Housed in 4 folders with additional preliminary loose, and all housed together in a black cloth folding... Read more
(FRENCH SIGNALS AT TRAFALGAR)
Officer's notebook from the Neptune containing the French signalling system. 1805
£12,500
Private manuscript signal manual carried on board the French ship Neptune in the Trafalgar campaign. Neptune, 80 guns, was built in 1803 at Toulon, and was commissioned just in time...
Small octavo (168 × 130 mm). Loosely sewn into limp vellum wraps, single linen tie remains. Illegible ?ownership inscription to the upper wrap. 22 leaves of... Read more
CHURCHILL, Winston S.
Autograph manuscript draft for the establishment of a regimental polo club: the "Polo Club 4th Hussars Rules & Committee." 1 October 1896
£9,500
Churchill's draft constitution for the IV Queen's Own Hussars Polo Club was written on board the transport carrying his regiment to India, and corrected and dated by him on the day...
8 page manuscript, 7 quarto sheets (256 × 202 mm), being halved folio sheets of Whatman paper watermarked 1894, the "cover" a full sheet wrapped around, the... Read more
BYRON, George Gordon, Lord.
Autograph letter signed ("Byron") to Captain John Hay ("My dear Hay"). 1822
£7,500
Byron writes to thank his old friend for an unusual gift: "A Thousand and one thanks for the boar - which has arrived in high order - and entire. But I wish you were here to partake...
One page, octavo (200 × 125 mm), written on one side only. Small circular blindstamp of Dobbs & Co, London, at foot below the text. Housed in a black quarter... Read more
(NAVAL; French.)
Tableau de la Marine de France divisée par Escadres, 1787. c.1787]
£7,250
Elegant, superbly-finished presentation tabulation of the strength of the French navy at this historically crucial period, just four years after its vital role in the American War of...
Large landscape single-sheet (1030 × 690 mm). Entirely calligraphic table in brown, red and green ink; broad gilt rules; handsome water-colour sprigs of flowers;... Read more
STEVENSON, Robert Louis.
Autograph working manuscript. 1892]
£6,500
A working manuscript, beginning with a dialogue sketch from Catriona, the 1893 sequel to Kidnapped (1886). What follows are about 16 lines of unpublished poetry, in part: "I am come...
Single leaf, folio (319 × 200 mm), 16 lines written on one side and 4 on the verso, with some deletions. Browning and a little chipping at edges, still good. Read more
DUPUGET, Edme-Jean-Antoine.
Essay sur l'Usage de l'Artillerie dans la Guerre de Campagne et dans celle des Sieges. 1767
£6,250
A handsome and highly interesting manuscript. The first published edition was issued by Arckstée & Merkus in Amsterdam in 1771, credited to "un Officier du Corps," the author...
Small quarto (203 × 163mm), manuscript, [vi], 294pp., [iv], 47pp. Contemporary mottled sheep, red morocco label, raised bands, spine gilt in compartments with... Read more
COTTON, Horace Salusbury.
Convicts executed since the Year 1812 (inclusive) at Newgate. 1812-37
£5,000
Remarkable personal, and therefore illicit, record of the executions overseen by Cotton, the Ordinary, or Chaplain, of Newgate during his incumbency, 1814 to 1839. He notes the dates...
Octavo ( 190 × 117 mm). Dark blue grained skiver notebook, neatly rebacked, blind rules to the spine, containing a 120-page manuscript in a clearly legible hand,... Read more
PLEYDELL-BOUVERIE, Duncombe, Admiral.
Ships of the British Navy. 1838-47
£4,750
Scrupulously maintained record of the ships of the Royal Navy during the 1840s, begun in 1838 and updated four times over the following nine years. The tables record the dimensions,...
Quarto (253 × 183 mm). Dark blue straight-grain morocco, titled "Navy List" in gilt to spine, gilt panels to the boards, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers.... Read more
ACTON, Harold.
Autograph manuscript: "Poems 1925". 1930
£4,750
With the author's 3-page autograph letter presenting this manuscript to Sir Robert Abdy, with the recipient's small bookplate to the front pastedown. Acton alludes to Abdy's gift of...
Octavo. Original batik-patterned green wrappers printed in black and gold. In a matching card slipcase. In excellent condition. Read more
ELIOT, T. S.
Draft Review of Lytton Strachey's Elizabeth and Essex. 1928
£3,750
Final typescript copy with a small number of pencil corrections in the author's hand. Eliot's favourable analysis of Elizabeth and Essex was published anonymously in the Times...
7 pages, carbon copy from typescript. Each leaf housed in an acetate sleeve, together in a black folder. Pages lightly toned and creased with some mild offsetting... Read more
BOHAN , François Philibert Loubat de.
Extraits de l'Examen Critique du Militaire Française, 1820
£3,500
Neatly written and clearly legible manuscript copy of Bohan's important and uncommon work. Originally published in Geneva 1781, "The third volume, including some extracts of the...
3 volumes in 2, octavo (183 × 115 mm). Contemporary full calf , flat spines, red morocco title- and numbering-pieces, compartments gilt alternately with repeated... Read more
SACKVILLE-WEST, V.
Original holograph manuscript of her translation of Charles Morgan's Ode To France. 1943
£3,000
An apparently unpublished translation produced at the request of Godfrey and made "for your escaped friend … Of course this would have to be for the private use of your friend...
7 pages. Housed in a dark blue quarter morocco slipcase made by The Chelsea Bindery. Excellent condition. Read more
[BURGESS, Anthony] WILSON, John Burgess.
Sonatina in G Major. For Anne Field. 1952
£2,750
Holograph music manuscript comprising the complete Sonatina written by Burgess as a Christmas gift to his first wife. Titled and annotated by him and signed at the end with the rare...
Folio. Pp 6. White wove paper lined in six double staves, with plain front wrapper titled in ink by Burgess. Wire stitched. Housed in a blue cloth ribbon tied chemise... Read more
BROWN, Frederick John, Colonel.
Service with the 56th Regiment and 2nd Battn. The Essex Regiment "Pompadours." A Manuscript Autobiographical Record, 1875-1919. c.1920]
£2,750
A well-written, lively and highly detailed account of a military life in the late nineteenth century through to the First World War. Evidently written up for family reference,...
Folio, c.440pp. manuscript in half reversed calf ledger book, sewn into sail-cloth wrapper. Thirteen mounted original albumen prints, Suez, India, Aden and Malta.... Read more
(BARBADOS, SUGAR & SLAVERY)
Marriage settlement relating to Thomas Gunstone of the parish of St. Georges, Barbados, planter, and his wife Ursula. 1682
£2,750
Barbados was first settled by the English in 1627. By 1638 it was a tobacco plantation economy, in depression because of over-production in Virginia and the West Indies. Soon after...
Folio (475 × 325 mm). Three conjoined pieces of paper, including "A List or Schedule of all and every ye Negro-Slaves, Horses, Cattle & Stock, Coppers, Stills &... Read more
BRYANT, Arthur.
Autograph manuscript, "The Summer of Dunkirk." 1943
£2,750
The original working manuscript of Bryant's celebrated article commissioned by The Daily Sketch and published in that newspaper on 3 and 4 June 1943, the third anniversary of the...
Folio, 24 leaves, written in pencil on rectos only. Contemporary presentation binding by Birdsall in full red crushed morocco, titles to upper board gilt, two raised... Read more
![Pair of Illuminated Manuscripts [Litany and De Profundis].](/content/store/products/11274/2/11676.jpg)
(Illuminated Manuscript)
Pair of Illuminated Manuscripts [Litany and De Profundis]. late 1400s
£2,500
A beautiful pair of matching illuminated manuscripts. One leaf displays the beginning of the Litany from the First Friday Devotions, and the second presents part of Psalm 130, "De...
Single leaf manuscripts on vellum (195 × 150 mm). Handmade mahogany frames with gold leaf bevel laid on burgundy velvet. Read more
