66 618 résultats
Small 4to (ca. 160 x 158 mm). 1 p. Stored in custom-made burgundy morocco chemise, interior finished with navy-blue morocco, inner front cover with a steel-engraved portrait of Beethoven under a silk matte. To the Viennese civil servant Franz Rettich (1768-1818), who was to help Beethoven send urgently needed scores to Graz for a charity concert on March 29th, only six days hence: - "Es dürften bis Morgen abend wohl sicher noch die 2 overturen folgen, und so wird Ihnen geholfen, jedoch mit der äußersten Anstrengung. Schreiben Sie nur gefälligst, daß man in Graz sicher alles erwartete erhalte, jedoch muß man sich im Voraus gefaßt machen zur Probe, da die Sachen mit dem Postwagen zwar nicht zu spät, aber doch auch nur eben zur rechten Zeit ankommen werden [...]" ("The two overtures ought quite certainly to follow by tomorrow evening, and so you shall be accommodated, but only thanks to the greatest exertions. Just kindly write that everything expected in Graz will dependably be received, but everyone must prepare for the rehearsal in advance, as the things will arrive by stagecoach, not indeed too late, but still only just in time [...]"). - In summer 1811 Beethoven had met the civil servant and patron of Graz, Joseph von Varena (1769-1843), who had persuaded the composer to support his charity concerts with music. Beethoven was enthusiastic and in late January 1812 promised Varena several pieces, including the overtures of "King Stephen" (op. 117) and "The Ruins of Athens" (op. 113), both of which were already intended for the inauguration of the German theatre in Pest on 9 February and were therefore in Hungary at the time of writing. Franz Rettich, secretary at the Superior Court of Justice in Vienna, was chosen to act as intermediary and messenger. (The father of the actor Karl Rettich, he had himself been a supporting actor at Vienna's court theatre between 1789 and 1797 before entering the civil service.) - In fact, the timing turned out to be extremely tight, as Beethoven's copyist Wenzel Schlemmer, the only man the composer would trust with the job, had fallen ill. In his present note to Rettich, Beethoven promises that the work will be finished in time, but warns that the orchestra in Graz will have very little opportunity to rehearse. Anxious to keep his word, Beethoven even forced Schlemmer to sign a declaration that he would complete the copies by March 26, noon - a pledge he would prove unable to keep. Ultimately, the copies were finished too late to go to Graz with Rettich by regular stagecoach and had to be sent by special courier, whom Rettich paid 21 guilders for the service, arriving at high noon on the day of the concert. The programme began at 6:30 that evening with a (very probably unrehearsed) performance of the "King Stephen" overture, but the overture from "The Ruins of Athens" had to be skipped. Still, the concert played an important role in making Beethoven known in Styria: "Varena, an ally from the very beginning, contributed much to that important first boost which launched a serious and lasting reception of Beethoven's works outside Vienna, enriching the musical life of Graz and amplifying with remarkable swiftness the structure of local concert programmes in the 19th century" (cf. Nemeth, p. 29). - Traces of original vertical and horizontals folds; in excellent condition. On the verso, Rettich has certified the receipt: "This message was written to me and I received it on March 23." Beethoven, Briefwechsel (ed. S. Brandenburg), vol. 2, p. 251, no. 562. F. Bischoff, "Beethoven und die Grazer musikalischen Kreise", Beethovenjahrbuch 1 (1908), pp. 6-27, here at p. 11. Cf. M. Nemeth, Beethoven-Rezeption in Graz im frühen 19. Jahrhundert unter besonderer Berücksichtigung seiner Symphonik und des Grazer Konzertwesens (unpublished M.A. thesis, Graz, 2003).
179167693s. l. Londres London Paris Toulon. 1791. Fine. s. l. Londres London Paris Toulon. 1791-1832 12 000 feuillets de divers formats en feuilles Unpublished political scientific and historical archives The complete manuscript unpublished papers of Louis Chevalier de Sade 1753-1832 author of the Lexicon politique and cousin of the famous Marquis. The important geopolitical historical and scientific archives of a learned aristocrat a privileged witness of the end of the Ancien Régime the French Revolution the Consulate Empire and Restoration. A unique fund of research on the implementation of a constitutional monarchy. Exceptional collection of the Chevalier Louis de Sade's personal archives the cousin of the Marquis de Sade representing 12000 handwritten pages including several thousand unpublished and written by his hand. The Chevalier shows a thought system that he describes as «holistic» including historical political and scientific reflections. Louis Chevalier de SADE If we take the French Revolution as the birth of an experiment both secular and political the Chevalier de Sade was without doubt one of its early critics. Not only of the Revolution which had many other detractors but of its political ideology which would go on profoundly to impact the two hundred years that followed. What he calls «positive politics» is «based on reasoning and experience». «The theory did have some attractions for me; I studied it with care I savored its principles. Now I see their value only in terms of the impact of their implementation what we've seen them produce in the peoples of which history has given me knowledge. This is my method; I know that it is all in all the opposite of the methods utilized by the men who have governed us and written our constitutions to this very day without deviation. This continuous divergence between what has been done and what should never have been done increased my confidence in the path to be followed and at the same time fortified my determination to keep to the views I had adopted of judging laws by the historic consequences they entail rather than by the lyrical supposedly conclusive metaphysical arguments with which these innovators continually and still to this day assault us.» The Chevalier de Sade who saw the world in terms of his own time and place could be nothing other than a Royalist. There were practically no examples of democracy in the history known to the Chevalier apart from the Classical democracies of Greece and Rome which had been experiments only in very elitist forms of democracy. These were very well known to this political scientist whose papers contain 7000 pages dedicated to the history of the Classical world. The republic ushered in by the Revolution was more than just a political system it was the realization of a philosophical political ideal. And while most of those opposed to the new regime saw in it above all a threat to their personal situations their religious beliefs or even more simply their habits the writings of the Chevalier de Sade show no such dogmatic influence; or at least he never uses dogma to justify his arguments. Louis de Sade a gentleman without a fortune and without significant ties was conservative through philosophical and historical conviction and not out of interest. It is with this perfect intellectual honesty that he studies the essays memoirs and political or theoretical works of his contemporaries. Running counter to Enlightenment thought the Chevalier's view of society owed very little to philosophy. Though he puts together a serious theoretical history of the development of Man from the condition of «savages» to the forging of various societies he does not posit Man's ideal nature as some of his contemporaries did. Rather the Chevalier examines the gap between nature and the civilized being without passing moral or philosophical judgment as was the fashion at the time. «The political error that damned Europe in the 18th unknown
A trove of 424 catalogued items, comprising correspondence including letters by Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Franz Werfel, and Salman Schocken; Klopstock's manuscripts and personal documents; more than 50 books from his library (among them inscribed copies by Max Brod, Klaus and Thomas Mann, and Franz Werfel), and a large collection of photographs. When Kafka died in the Austrian lung sanitarium of Kierling in 1924, it was (to employ the phrase used by Klaus Mann) in the arms of his friend Robert Klopstock, an Hungarian-born medical student with literary ambitions whom Kafka had met three years earlier at a different sanitarium, a fellow sufferer from tuberculosis. Klopstock's estate now makes accessible the largely unknown biography of the physician who was forced into emigration in 1938 and became a U.S. citizen in 1945. His manuscripts, his personal documents, his copious collection of photographs, the inscribed books in his library, as well as his correspondence with such eminent figures as Thomas Mann, Franz Werfel, Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer, and Salman Schocken now permit us to trace for the first time the path which the life of Kafka's last friend took. - Mann and Einstein both interceded on Klopstock's behalf to help him emigrate and find employment in the United States. In one of these letters, Mann directly invoked Klopstock's role as the selfless care-giver that would come to define his image in Kafka scholarship: "I first met Dr. Klopstock through the gifted young German writer Franz Kafka, for whom Dr. Klopstock did so much professionally and spiritually before he died". From Franz Werfel we have the now-famous 1934 letter in which he describes, in quasi-religious terms, his own relationship to Kafka, in whom he recognized (as he confides to Klopstock) the "Herald of the King". - Indeed, Klopstock himself was well-connected within German and Hungarian literary circles and active as a translator, especially of the humourous stories of Frigyes Karinthy, on which he consulted Kafka. Later increasingly private in his personal affairs and notoriously reticent about his famous companion, the physician was dubbed "crazy Dr. Klopstock" by Max Brod, who appears to have begrudged him his friendship with Kafka, viewing him, perhaps, as something of an interloper. Klopstock held and jealously guarded the Hungarian translation rights to Kafka's works; together with his wife Giselle, Klopstock undertook the first Hungarian translation of Kafka's "Trial", the beginning of which is preserved here. Giselle's own novel "Without Destination", set in a lung sanitarium, won the approval of Thomas Mann, who recommended it to Knopf, his American publisher. - Robert Klopstock died in New York in 1972, a highly respected surgeon and scientist whose research led to significant contributions in the field of pulmonary tuberculosis. His estate forms an extraordinary collection in which important discoveries still remain to be made. A PDF catalogue is available on request. Kafkas letzter Freund. Der Nachlaß Robert Klopstock (1899-1972). Wien, Inlibris, 2003.
Catalogued as 450 items, totalling ca. 1400 pp. The present correspondence archive includes, among many other items, 6 letters or cards by Peter Altenberg, 1 by Richard Beer-Hofmann, 10 by Lili Darvas, 2 by Kasimir Edschmid, 13 by Anton Faistauer, 1 by Egon Friedell, 1 by Heinrich Friedjung, 1 by Hermann Hesse, 54 by Max Kalbeck, 1 by Alma Mahler-Werfel, 3 by Ernst Matray, 1 by Max Mell, 5 by Princess Clementine Metternich-Sándor, 1 by Bella Paalen, 2 by Alfred Polgar, 1 by Erich Reiß, 74 by Ernst Schütte, 1 by Rudolph Slatin-Pascha, and 1 by Max Slevogt. - A very extensive segment of 92 letters is formed by the correspondence with Josef Maria Auchenthaller, amplified by 29 from his wife Emma and 15 from their daughter Maria Josepha, who took her own life in 1914, aged only 20. In a highly interesting autobiographical typescript written a year or two before her death, Gusti Adler recounts how her own family met that of the famous artist and how she, then only 14 years old, had fallen in love with Auchenthaller, 25 years her senior. - Gusti Adler, born in Brixen in 1890, was the daughter of the painter Maria Adler and the country squire and later journalist Heinrich Adler, brother of Victor Adler, the founder of the Social Democratic Worker's Party of Austria; her sister was the artist Marianne Adler. Trained as a sculptor under Richard Kaufungen in Vienna, she later focused on painting as well as on arts and crafts, in 1913 beginning to write criticism for the "Wiener Fremdenblatt". After relocating to Berlin she wrote for Viennese and local newspapers, using the pseudonym "Christoph Brandt", and edited works by Jean Paul and Georg Forster. - Through the intermediation of her childhood friend Helene Thimig she met Max Reinhardt in 1919 and soon embarked on a two-decade-long career as his private secretary and aide, organising not only the numerous details of the great director's private life but also most of his theatre productions, especially at the Salzburg Festival. In 1939 she followed Reinhardt to the USA and was an active member of his "Workshop for Stage, Screen and Radio". After Reinhardt's death in October 1943 she joined the documentation department of Warner Bros. in Hollywood, where she remained until her 80th year. - In 1946 she published her biography of Max Reinhardt, followed in 1980 by the sequel "… aber vergessen Sie nicht die chinesischen Nachtigallen". Gusti Adler passed away in Hollywood in 1985. - A detailed catalogue is available.
8vo. 60 pp. The complete text (setting copy) of his long essay on current political events in Russia, written shortly before the Revolution of 1905: "As the forces of [Russian despotism; stricken out and corrected to:] Czardom are driven back and crippled more and more, both on sea and on land, curious attempts are being made in England to impress public opinion with the idea that, if [inserted: ever] she were [stricken out: to] actively to turn against Russia, she would have to reckon with an armed alliance between Russia and Germany [...]". With numerous revisions in ink and pencil as well as setting instructions ("all minion on this page" etc.); a few leaves assembled from paragraphs clipped from other sheets and glued together. Occasional edge flaws, but very well preserved. - Even as a law student in Heidelberg, the Mannheim-born Blind promoted a political revolution that would produce a unified, democratic German republic; after a brief imprisonment he participated in the failed Baden insurrection of 1848 led by Friedrich Hecker and Gustav Struve. Blind first met Marx at the Karlsruhe Republican Committee in May 1848, where Marx and Engels declared their frustration with the course of the uprising. As Engels remembered, the 21-year-old Blind was one of only two members of the committee who had supported their opinion. Indeed, Blind was taken prisoner and sentenced to eight years’ confinement, but was soon freed by fellow revolutionaries and escaped to France, and later to England. During Marx’s early weeks of refuge in London he even lodged with Blind: in a letter to Freiligrath written on 5 September 1849, he gives Blind’s address as his own. Blind permanently settled in London in 1852 and continued to advance the cause of democracy as a writer. He was well-connected among European republicans and corresponded with Garibaldi, Kossuth, and Louis Blanc. A man of wide education and interests, Blind composed not only political propaganda and journalism but also biography and works on history and mythology, as well as on German and Indian literature. Published in the "North American Review", vol. CLXXIX (October 1904), no. 575, pp. 481-493.
Cabinet photograph, oval albumen print (vintage) with three autograph lines in ink on the reverse. 110 x 166 mm. On card imprinted by the studio Konstantin Shapiro, St Petersburg. Fine head-and-shoulders portrait. The reverse bears an uncommonly personal three-line inscription to his brother, the architect Andrey Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1825-97): "Dorogomu bratu / Andreju ot brata / Fedora 12 Oktob[ra] / 79" ("For my dear brother Andrey from his brother Fyodor, 12 October 1879"). - Not listed in the census of Dostevsky's inscriptions, published in 1990. Altogether, the editors of the scholarly 30-volume Academy of Sciences edition of Dostoevsky's works count only 42 inscriptions, of which 16 are on photographs - a surprisingly small number for a so prolific and significant author of his day. - The St Petersburg photographer and Hebrew poet Constantin Shapiro (1839-1900) was a close friend of Dostevsky's and produced several portraits of him. His fashionable studio on Nevsky Prospect was popular with celebrities, and his many famous sitters included Tolstoy, Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, Turgenev, and Gontcharov. - Tissue guards to both sides, protecting image and inscription (somewhat wrinkled); in very appealing condition. An extremely fine example of an inscribed Dostoevsky portrait, exceedingly rare. Cf. Dostoevsky, Polnoe sobranie socinenij v tridcati tomah, XXX.2 (Dopolneniâ k izdaniû. Darstvennye i drugie nadpisi i pomety na pis'mah. Svodnye ukazateli), pp. 57-65.
4to. (203:254 mm). 1 page. On headed notepaper. Hawking encloses an improved version of a paper co-authored with George Ellis (the work, not present here, was ‘The Cosmic Black-Body Radiation and the Existence of Singularities in Our Universe’, The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 152 (April 1968), p. 25], noting that the ‘calculations of the convergence condition have been redrawn’. Hawking enjoyed his visit to Maryland, which prompted some ideas about Misner incompleteness that he intends to put into a paper when he has time. He continues: ‘I heard Stan Deser outline his proof that mass is positive definite. He claims that a function whose only critical value is zero and which has a local minimum there is necessarily positive elsewhere. It seems to me that there are counter examples to this in finite dimensions – not to speak of the infinite dimensions case’. A reminder about payment for his last week at Maryland and travel expenses ends the letter, Hawking professing himself embarrassed, but mentioning it in case the cheque might be missing in the post. - Stephen Hawking first met the American physicist Charles W. Misner during the latter’s 1966-67 visit to Cambridge at the invitation of Hawking’s postgraduate supervisor Dennis Sciama; the two became close, and Hawking visited Misner at his own institution, the University of Maryland, at the end of 1967. Hawking’s work on singularity theorems, which he first published in his 1965 doctoral thesis, overlapped with the research Misner was undertaking on geodesical incompleteness, a notion at the centre of the concepts Hawking was developing with Roger Penrose (the ‘Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems’). Here, Hawking seemingly refers to a proof that another of their colleagues in the field, Stanley Deser, would publish the following year in the Physical Review Letters, in a paper entitled ‘Positive-Definiteness of Gravitational Field Energy’. - Provenance: Charles W. Misner.
Folio. Autograph manuscript. 24 ff., some leaves written on both sides. Revised by the author throughout. Stored in custom-made blue half morocco solander case. The original manuscript of Mendeleev's speech on "The Oscillation of the Balance", delivered at the General Meeting of the 10th Congress of Russian Naturalists in Kiev (August 1898). In his annotated bibliography of his own works, self-compiled in 1899, Mendeleev writes: "Predmet schitaju ochen' vazhnym i interesnym" ("A subject I find very important and interesting"). After the end of his teaching career at the University of St. Petersburg in 1890, Mendeleev was variously employed by the government bureaucracy. From 1892 on he was "concerned in the regulation of the system of weights and measures in Russia, a task that he discharged 'with enthusiasm, since here the purely scientific was closely interwoven with the practical.' In 1893 he was named director of the newly created Central Board of Weights and Measures, a post which he held until his death, and in connection with which he frequently traveled abroad" (DSB IX, 292). - "The great importance of Mendeleev's work", write Kayak and Smirnova, "was that in his approach to the development of the theory of balances and methods of accurate weighing he took into account the physical essence of the phenomena investigated, whereas many investigators before and even after him attempted to solve all the problems on the basis of purely mechanical conceptions [...] Mendeleev's interest in balances as the most important instrument in physical and chemical investigations was manifested from the very beginning of his scientific work. Long before his move to the Depot of Standard Weights and Measures he devoted much attention to the perfection of balances, and methods of accurate weighing. In 1861 Mendeleev succeded in observing the oscillations of balances from a distance, thereby eliminating the influence of the heat radiated by the observer on the balance; he also proposed the use of a heat distributor made of copper for a balance beam. Mendeleev's most important work on the development of the theory of balances and methods of accurate weighing was made at the Principal Bureau of Weights and Measures, where he took upon himself the entire responsibility for organizing and equipping the weight laboratory" (p. 25). - Occasional insignificant edge defects, but altogether a very well preserved manuscript. Includes a copy of the published text. Published: Sochineniya 7, pp. 577-591. Reference: Sochineniya 25, p. 752, no. 275. - Cf. L. K. Kayak and N. A. Smirnova, Theory of balances and accurate weighing in the investigations of Mendeleev and later developments, in: Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika 9 (Sept. 1969), pp. 25-28.
4to. 2 pp. (90 lines). Original draft for Wagner's famous oration held on December 15, 1844, when Carl Maria von Weber's remains were laid to rest at the Catholic cemetery in Dresden. The mortal remains of Weber, who had died in London in 1826, were transferred back to Germany in 1844 on the initiative of Wagner, and were finally buried there. - With small departures printed in: Richard Wagner, Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen, II, 1871, 61 ff., also: Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen, 4th ed., vol. 2, 1907, 46 ff. A facsimile of the fair copy of Wagner's speech, which has also survived, is published in Julius Kapp, Richard Wagner. Sein Leben, sein Werk, seine Welt in 260 Bildern, Berlin 1933, 40. - Provenance: Cäcile Geyer, Wagners half-sister (1815 - 1893), their son Ferdinand Avenarius (1856 - 1923), and his stepson Wolfgang Schumann (1887 - 1964), afterwards in private collection. - Mild toning and slightly spotty; small damage to edges.
4to. 2 pp. on 2 ff. In English. To the U.S. diplomat J. Franklin Ray, director of the Far East Office of the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), acknowledging the dangers encountered by convoys delivering aid, and suggesting the establishment of liaison offices in both Communist and Nationalist areas: "I am very appreciative of your thoughtfulness in sending me the attached report made by the UNRRA inspector which gives me more understanding towards the difficulties encountered by the UNRRA and CNRRA transportation convoy in passing through the combat regions. It is comprehensible that the relief work in combat regions is hazardous; therefore it is inadvisable to ask the UNRRA or CNRRA personnel to carry it on at the risk of their lives. We suggest hereby to you that under the present circumstances separate liaison offices should be established in Nationalist and Communist areas respectively so as to facilitate the relief work. With the institution of these liaison offices, the relief personnel can carry out their work in cooperation with the local governments and military authorities, without being endangered by travelling between the areas and running through blockade lines and combat regions. Dr. T. F. Tsiang has already associated himself with my suggestion [...]". - With pencil annotations by Ray concerning further action: "We agree & are working actively on this as rapidly as necessary personnel can be mobilized [...]". - One of the principal leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhou Enlai had played a key role fomenting unrest in Shanghai in the 1920s and was one of Mao's most trusted lieutenants by the time of the Long March. He was involved in intelligence and diplomatic work during the war with Japan. Premier of the PRC from its foundation until his death in 1976, he was additionally Foreign Minister from 1949 to 1958. - The letter was written when Zhou was representing the CCP at the Marshall Mission which, under American leadership, attempted to bring about a united government in China following the defeat of the Japanese. The Communists and Nationalists had signed a ceasefire in January 1946 but there was deep distrust between the two sides. By the summer of 1946 there were frequent clashes between Communists and Nationalists, especially in Manchuria, and negotiations were on the verge of collapse. This letter shows Zhou working to ensure the safety of aid convoys on behalf of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and also the Nationalist Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (CNRRA). - J(efferson) Franklin Ray (1905-91) served in several United Nations and State Department positions. He was director of UNRRA's Far East Office from 1945 to 1947; he was also a member of the 1948 and 1949 delegation to the Far Eastern Commission. Most of his posthumous papers are kept at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. - Traces of rust and pin holes to the upper left corner. Upper edge clipped without loss. Provenance: Stargardt, sale of 12 June 1986, lot 1223. Extremely rare.
4to (161 x 202 mm). 27 pp. Ink on lined paper, numbered in pencil in another hand. Fastened with brass tack at upper left corner. Stored in a quarter morocco clamshell case. (With:) The Strand Magazine. London, George Newnes, November 1921 issue (No. 371, Vol. 62), story published on pp. 380-388. The complete autograph manuscript of a work widely considered one of Doyle's best ghost stories. The macabre tale unites two of the author's great passions, boxing and Spiritualism, to create the tale of a sinister prize fighter whose physical brutality does not die. The present manuscript contains mostly minor edits, though a handful of pages include more substantial excisions and additions: on page nine, for example, "the man who accosted them" has been replaced with simply "him", and the description of "a surly red face" has been expanded to include "with an ill-fitting lower lip". On page 13, nearly twenty words have been crossed out. Includes a fine, bright copy of the "Strand Magazine" issue in which the story was first published. - Some spotting and soiling, most visible on first and final pages. Centre crease throughout. Ink a little faded in some places; final page with a little creasing and a couple short closed tears. Provenance: Sotheby’s New York, 10 Dec. 1993, lot 320. Latterly in the collection of the U.S. lawyer Edward R. Leahy (b. 1947).
Two pages (207:300 mm). 14 bars on one six-stave system (bars 51-64 of the published edition) for voice, bass, two horns and strings, the text for the aria "Sono le femmine si maliziose [...] nessun per certo le troverà". A fragment of Haydn's "Dice Benissimo". Haydn composed two insertion arias for Antonio Salieri’s dramma giocoso of 1778, "La scuola de' gelosi": one is lost to us, while the present manuscript is a fragment of the aria created for the bass voice of the manservant Lumaca. One of Haydn's many responsibilities as Kapellmeister of the Esterházy family - by 1780 under Nikolaus I - was as director of the opera company, his patron's newest passion as of the mid-1770s. Esterháza Palace was transformed, at the behest of Prince Nikolaus, into an important fixture on the opera calendar, with its theatre routinely hosting multiple productions each year. Not only would Haydn direct and produce the performances, but he would compose his own works, as well as adapting those of other composers - usually choosing dramma giocoso - to suit the forces at his disposal. This often meant composing insertion arias - such as the present work - to suit the voice of a particular singer: around twenty such arias survive, dating from 1777 to 1789, although only a handful are written for bass or tenor. - Remnants of tape at upper, left-hand and bottom margins of recto. Provenance: Professor Theodor Dielitz (presentation and authentication inscription; Dielitz's substantial autograph collection was auctioned by Hartung in Berlin in January 1858), given to a Dr. Pribil as a duplicate, 1 January 1848. Last in the Metropolitan Opera Guild Collection. Not in Hoboken.
I) Lucrèce Borgia. 1833. (2), XI, (1), 192 pp. II) Le Roi s'amuse. 1832. (8), XXIII, (1), 183 pp. III) Marie Tudor. 1833. (6), IV, 214 pp. Each with frontispiece. All three bound in a single volume in slightly later half calf with giltstamped spine and marbled covers. A matching second volume contains: 1) Borgia, Lucrezia (1480-1519). Letter signed. Rome, 20 Nov. 1501. ½ p. Folio. 2) Hugo, Victor (1802-1885). Autograph ink caricature, mounted on backing paper. 10 x 13 cm. 3) Mocquard, Jean-François (1791-1864). Autograph letter signed. Paris, 15 Jan. 1853. 1 p. 8vo. 4) Fournier, Louis Edouard (1857-1917). Autograph drawing inscribed. 12.5 x 20.5 cm. 5) Donizetti, Gaetano (1797-1848). Autograph musical manuscript (fragment). 6 pp., ca. 33 x 12 cm. 6) Hugo, Victor (1802-1885). Two autograph instructions signed. 26 Dec. 1839 and 20 Feb. (no year). Oblong 8vo. 2 pp. Both volumes stored together in a matching calf-entry marbled slipcase. A charming ensemble of three first editions of Victor Hugo's plays, each one inscribed by the author to his elder brother, the essayist and military writer Abel Hugo (1798-1855). When the set was auctioned at the sale of the library of the author's grandson Georges-Victor Hugo, it was acquired by Arthur Meyer, the director of the prestigious daily "Le Gaulois" and a passionate collector who was wont to enrich, or "truffle", his books with appropriate rare autographs and drawings. In this case, the addenda, bound in a matching half-calf volume, greatly surpass in value the works they accompany: 1) A precious letter by the Renaissance noblewoman Lucrezia Borgia, famous for her marriages and her affair with Pietro Bembo (signed "Lucretia Esteri de Borgia"), written in recommendation of Hector Beringero to the poet Antonio Tebaldeo (1463-1537), secretary to Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua (later Lucrezia's lover). Meyer had acquired this outstanding document from the collection of Alfred Morrison (cf. Catalogue of the Collection of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents Formed Between 1865 and 1882 by Alfred Morrison, 1883, p. 100). - 2) Almost equally striking is the original, highly expressive pen-and-ink drawing by Victor Hugo, showing the dark shape of a portly figure holding a candle (an illustration of Act III, Scene 1 of his 1843 play "Les Burgraves"), captioned by the artist in his own hand: "Mm. Mélingue criant: Caïn! de la Coulisse". In the original production, the actress Rosaline Mélingue had played the role of Guanhumara, providing the off-stage voice for the eerie scene. - 3) Also included is a letter by J.-F. Mocquard, chief-of-staff to Napoleon III, addressed to Auguste Romieu, the directeur des beaux-arts, concerning matters of theatrical censorship (including Hugo's play "Lucrèce Borgia"). 4) The associations are reinforced in an expressive charcoal drawing showing Victor Hugo reading to his brother Abel the first act of "Lucrèce Borgia", inscribed in pencil to the collector by the artist L. E. Fournier: "A M. Arthur Meyer très cordialement". 5) Finally, Meyer was able to include a fragment of Gaetano Donizetti's original manuscript of his 1833 opera "Lucrezia Borgia", which he had based on Hugo's play. 6) At the very end are two brief notes by Victor Hugo in which the author instructs his publisher Renduel to issue to the bearer copies of his works, including "Lucrèce Borgia". - Provenance: bookplates of Arthur Meyer and Jean Inglessi, as well as an additional monogrammed bookplate. Last in the collection of Pierre Bergé (1930-2017).
Oblong 8vo. 1 page. To the sister of leading Social Democrat Hugo Haase (1863-1919), sending wishes regarding the wedding ceremony of a member of her family: "[…] We are very pleased by the surprising news and congratulate you all, especially the bride and groom, with all our heart […]". - Sophia Borissowna Ryss, called Sonja (1884-1964), was from 1912 onwards the second wife of Karl Liebknecht. - Small traces of mounting on reverse; very rare.
179167693s. l. (Londres, Paris, Toulon...) 1791-1832 | 12000 feuillets de divers formats | en feuilles
Folio. 1 p. Ink and pencil on wove paper. Three edges gilt. Heine's short, self-ironic poem "Das Glück ist eine leichte Dirne", probably written between 1848 and 1851 and published in 1851 in his late collection "Romanzero": an unknown version, departing from the published text, penned as a dedication for Marie Buloz, who had visited the ailing poet on 19 March 1853 with her husband François, editor of the "Revue des Deux Mondes". Beside the German text (in ink) Heine has pencilled a French translation. A remarkable document from Heine's final years in what he called his "mattress tomb", during which writing, especially with pen and ink, cost him the greatest of efforts and he almost entirely limited himself to the use of the pencil. The album leaf was considered lost and was known to scholarship through an incomplete manuscript copy of the French translation only (by an unidentified scribe) in the Spoelberch de Loevenjoul collection, Musée de Chantilly, on which all critical editions base their text. - Occasional slight smudging to pencil; a small trace of red ink near the German text. Heine, Werke, Säkularausgabe, vol. 3, commentary, ed. by R. Francke (Berlin 2008), p. 244f. ("lost"). Heine, Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe der Werke, Düsseldorfer Ausgabe, vol. 3/2 (Hamburg 1992), p. 734f. ("lost"). French text first printed: Heine, Briefwechsel. Reichvermehrte Gesamtausgabe, ed. by Friedrich Hirth, vol. 3 (Berlin 1920), p. 334f., no. 990 (French text only, based on a ms. copy); reprinted: Heine, Briefe. Erste Gesamtausgabe nach den Handschriften, ed. by Friedrich Hirth, vol. 3 (Mainz 1952), p. 459f., no. 1189 (in French and German parallel text, German text supplied from the published version). Poem first published in: Heine, Romanzero (Hamburg: Hoffmann & Campe, 1851), p. 118.
Gum bichromate print (vintage), 223 x 164 mm. Monogrammed and dated by the artist in red ink at lower right. Matted, framed and glazed. Portrait of the 45-year-old Mahler during the heyday of his directorship at the Vienna Court Opera, three years after his wedding to Alma Schindler. One of the extremely rare works by the sugar industrialist and collector Friedrich Spitzer, who since 1895 had devoted himself to a close study of experimental photographic processes, especially gum bichromate printing - a multi-layered method that accommodated the needs of fin-de-siècle artistic photography in that it allowed for a high degree of creative freedom during every step of the process, making every resulting print a unique work of art. - Spitzer, who cultivated an image as a dandy, was a member of Vienna's modernist art scene around the turn of the century. He was accepted into the renowned London photographic society "Linked Ring" as early as 1892 and joined Vienna's "Camera Club" in 1897. For his small but expressive and technically brilliant body of work he is remembered as one of the principal Austrian artistic photographers of his age. - The present portrait of Mahler was shown at Spitzer's only exhibition, at Vienna's Miethke Gallery in 1907. The artist's autograph signature with the date "05" is usually cropped from the published reproductions. - Perfectly preserved; framed under museum glass. Illustrated in: Photographische Rundschau und Photographisches Zentralblatt, Zeitschrift für Freunde der Photographie 20 (1906), plates. Christine Kühn, Kunstfotografie um 1900. Die Sammlung Fritz Matthies-Masuren, 1873-1938, exhibition catalogue Kunstbibliothek Berlin, 25.4.-15.6. 2003, p. 137. Gilbert E. Kaplan, Das Mahler Album (Vienna: Brandstätter, 1995, erroneously described). First exhibited: Galerie Miethke, cat. Skulpturen von Ilse Conrat u. künstlerische Fotografien von Prof. Heinr. Kühn und Dr. F. V. Spitzer (1907), no. 122. Cf. Gerd Pichler, "Joseph Maria Olbrichs nie gebaute Künstlerkolonie in Wien und Josef Hoffmanns Künstlerkolonie auf der Hohen Warte", in: ICOMOS 64 (2017), pp. 83-88.
4to (259 x 182 mm). 4 vols. Altogether 369 ff. with 145 entries. With 13 full-page gouaches and ornamental frames on each leaf, all heightend in gold. Contemporary red velvet with gilt-stamped spines and moiré silk endpapers. All edges gilt. Stored in custom-made slipcase. Exceedingly prestigious and luxurious friendship album with the signatures of Alexander II and Alexander III of Russia, the German Emperor Wilhelm I, Queen Victoria, seven kings including Frederick William IV of Prussia, Ludwig I, Maximilian II, and Ludwig II of Bavaria, five empresses including Alexandra Feodorovna, Maria Alexandrovna, and Elizabeth of Austria, seven queens consort, and several ruling princes. - The album is beautifully illuminated by the eminent Russian architect and designer Ippolit Monighetti, who was also responsible for the sumptuous book decorations of the famous imperial coronation album of Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna published in 1856. It is organized as a calendar, each volume comprising three months and each month being represented by a title gouache with biblical quotes and illustrations and one decorated page for each day. An additional title gouache in the first volume shows the calendar year 1855 and the arms of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, as Elisabeth of Prussia (1815-85) was by marriage a Princess of Hesse and by Rhine. The Hessian Lion reappears in the illustration for November, whereas the illustration for June includes a beautiful veduta of St Petersburg. Monighetti signed the title gouache as well as those for January and February; the latter is additionally dated to 1853, which indicates the time and effort invested in this exceptional work of art. - The 145 entries - mostly from members of the aristocracy, of which 131 could be identified - are unrelated to the calendar. They include, in volume I (January-March): Maria Alexandrovna, née Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, Empress of Russia (1824-80), her son Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia (1850-1908), Duke Elimar of Oldenburg (1844-95), Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Princess of Orléans (1814-58), Princess Sophie of Bavaria, Archduchess of Austria (1805-72), Maria Anna of Bavaria, Queen of Saxony (1805-77), Alexandrine of Prussia, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1803-92) and her son, Grand Duke Frederick Francis II (1823-83), Caroline Augusta of Bavaria, Empress of Austria (1792-1873), Louise Frederica of Anhalt-Dessau, Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg (1798-1858), Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine (1823-88), Emperor Alexander III of Russia (1845-94), Luitpold, Prince regent of Bavaria (1821-1912), Caroline of Hesse-Homburg (1819-72), Adelgunde of Bavaria, Duchess of Modena (1823-1914), and German Emperor Wilhelm I (1797-1888). - Among the signatories of volume II (April-June) are Alexander of Battenberg, Prince of Bulgaria (1857-93), Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia (1847-1909), Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine (1843-78), Ferdinand, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg (1783-1866), Otto of Bavaria (1848-1916), later king but who never actively ruled because of his mental state, Emperor Alexander II of Russia (1818-81), Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (1850-1942), Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia (1857-1905), Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria (1842-1919), Princess Sophie of Sweden, Grand Duchess of Baden (1801-65), Queen Victoria (1819-1901), Anna of Hesse and by Rhine, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1843-65), Princess Helena of the United Kingdom (1846-1923), King Otto of Greece (1815-67), Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse (1806-77), and Prince Charles of Prussia (1801-83). - Volume III (July-September) comprises the signatures of Prince Karl Theodor of Bavaria (1795-1875), Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (1866-1953), Alexandra Feodorovna, née Princess Charlotte of Prussia, Empress of Russia (1798-1860), Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine (1823-88) and his daughter Princess Marie of Battenberg (1852-1923), Prince Adalbert of Bavaria (1828-75), Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel, Duchess of Cambridge (1797-1889), Carola of Vasa, Queen of Saxony (1833-1907), Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1844-1900), King Ludwig I of Bavaria (1786-1868) and the later King Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845-86) on one leaf, Stéphanie de Beauharnais, Grand Duchess of Baden (1789-1860), Princess Ludovika of Bavaria (1808-92), the mother of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden (1826-1907), Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia, Queen of Württemberg (1822-92), Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse (1837-92), and the German Empress Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1811-90). - The fourth and final volume (October-December) includes signatures by Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia (1860-1919), King Frederick William IV of Prussia (1795-1861), Marie of Prussia, Queen of Bavaria (1825-89), Frederick William, Elector of Hesse (1802-75), again Maria Alexandrovna and her daughter, the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1853-1920), Prince Gustav Vasa (1799-1877), Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria, Queen of Prussia (1801-73) and her sister Amalie Auguste of Bavaria, Queen of Saxony (1801-77) on a single leaf, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge (1833-97), King Maximilian II of Bavaria (1811-64), King John of Saxony (1801-73), Amalia of Oldenburg, Queen of Greece (1818-75), and Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837-98). The final entry was written by Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. - Ippolit Monighetti studied design at the Stroganov Art School in Moscow and later architecture at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg. He started his career as an architect with several villas for the Russian nobility in Tsarkoye Selo (Pushkin). These early successes led to his discovery by Emperor Nicholas I, who commissioned Monighetti with the design of the Turkish Bath in Catherine Park in 1850. Many prestigious commissions followed, both for architecture and design, by members of the Romanov family including Emperor Alexander II. The commission of the friendship album for Elizabeth of Prussia was certainly facilitated by Elizabeth's close family ties to the Russian imperial family: Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was Elizabeth's cousin, whereas Alexandra's daughter-in-law Empress Maria Alexandrovna, who left three entries in the album, was a sister of Elizabeth's husband Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine. Although it is the only book known to have been illuminated by Monighetti, the intricate ornaments closely resemble his book decorations for the lithographed coronation album of Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna. Thus, the friendship album of Princess Elizabeth of Prussia is not only unique in the scope of its signatories but also closely connected to one of the most famous illustrated books of the 19th century. - Insignificant chafing to the title illustration for October. Overall very well preserved. Provenance: removed from the library of the Barons de Bassus at Schloss Sandersdorf.
Vorerschlossen in 12 Faszikeln: - 1) 10 Schreiben von Friedrich dem Großen an bzw. für Valory (zumeist mit eh. U., davon 2 gänzlich eh.) sowie eine teils chiffrierte Beilage. - 2) 8 Schreiben von Louis XV. an Valory bzw. Friedrich den Großen, alle mit eh. U. - 3) 25 Schriftstücke (Korrespondenz, Memoires, Verträge) zur europäischen Politik in zeitgenöss. Abschrift. - 4) 8 Schreiben des frz. Premierministers Kardinal André-Hercule de Fleury an Valory mit eh. U. - 5) 5 Schreiben frz. Diplomaten an Valory. - 6) 6 Schreiben verschiedener Diplomaten an Valory sowie 1 Teilabschrift eines Geheimvertrags. - 7) 6 Schreiben des preußischen Kabinettsministers Heinrich Graf Podewils an Valory, davon 3 gänzlich eh. - 8) Schreiben von Karl Albrecht von Bayern, als erwählter Kaiser Karl VII., und Schreiben von Karl Eugen Herzog von Württemberg, beide an Valory, mit eh. U. - 9) 3 eh. Schreiben mit U. von Johanna Elisabeth von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf an Valory. - 10) 4 Schreiben von Friedrich Wilhelm II. von Preußen an den Marquis de Boyer d'Eguilles. - 11) 9 diverse Schriftstücke, zumeist Korrespondenz der 1740er/50er Jahre in Abschrift. - 12) 33 diverse Schriftstücke des späten 16. und frühen 17. Jhs., zumeist von deutschen Fürsten an den König von Frankreich. - Zus. 353 SS. Versch. Formate, zumeist Folio und 4to. Hochinteressante Dokumentsammlung aus dem Nachlass des französischen Diplomaten Louis Guy Henri de Valory (Valori), der 1739 als französischer Gesandter an den preußischen Hof kam und dort bis 1750 wirkte, dann 1756 kurzfristig als Botschafter nach Berlin zurückkehrte. Der greise Kardinal und de-facto-Premierminister André Hercule de Fleury hatte den Offizier Valory, der sich im Spanischen Erbfolgekrieg ausgezeichnet hatte, nach Preußen geschickt, um am Hofe Friedrich Wilhelms I. die Interessen von Louis XV. zu vertreten; insbesondere sollte er das französisch-preußische Bündnis gegen das Habsburgerreich festigen. Valory entledigte sich seiner Mission erfolgreich: Er wirkte mehrfach auf die preußische Bündnispolitik ein, arrangierte die Ehe zwischen dem Dauphin und Maria Josepha von Sachsen (1747) und zählt zu den Architekten des Friedens von Aachen (1748). Obwohl der Kronprinz Friedrich zunächst wenig von Valory hielt, fand er bald Gefallen an dem so gebildeten wie originellen Kopf, und nach seiner Thronbesteigung als Friedrich II. bezeugte er ihm mehrmals seine Freundschaft. - Zu den vorliegend überlieferten zehn Schreiben Friedrichs des Großen zählen zwei eigenhändige Billetts (davon eines im Umfang von 3 Seiten); ein weiteres weist eine sechszeilige eigenhändige Nachschrift auf (während Friedrichs Bevollmächtigung für Heinrich Graf Podewils zu einem preußisch-französischen Defensivbündnis neben der Unterschrift das wohlerhaltene königliche Lacksiegel trägt). Die meisten dieser Schriftstücke stammen aus dem ersten Jahr des Ersten Schlesischen Kriegs, mehrere sind in Feldlagern verfasst. Bei Valorys Abschied aus Berlin 1750 spricht ihm Friedrich mit warmen Ausdrücken seine Zufriedenheit aus, und bei seiner abrupten Abberufung 1756 widmet er ihm mit eigener Hand die persönlichen Worte: "Après la façon outrageante dont votre cour se comporte envers moi, vous ne trouverez point étrange que je ne réponds point au ministre de France, mais à mon vieil ami. Je suis fâché de votre départ, et vous pouvez être persuadé que je ferai non seulement des vœux pour votre santé, mais encore pour votre fortune. Faites mes compliments à mes amis dans le pays où vous allez, si j'en ai encore. Pour moi, je vois toutes les extravagances qui arrivent, de sang froid, et vous pouvez être persuadé que, bien loin d'en être découragé, ce m'est un nouvel aiguillon qui m'animera à faire l'impossible possible l'année qui vient. Adieu, mon cher Valory, je vous souhaite un heureux voyage. Federic". - Von Minister Podewils liegen sechs teils eigenhändige Schreiben an Valory vor, die von September 1741 bis kurz vor Ausbruch des Zweiten Schlesischen Kriegs reichen. Von französischer Seite enthält der Bestand acht vom König von Frankreich unterschriebene Instruktionen an seinen Gesandten, ferner acht Schreiben Fleurys und eine Fülle weiterer diplomatischer Korrespondenz. Viele Dokumente zur Großmachtpolitik der 1740er bis 1750er Jahre finden sich in zeitgenössischer Abschrift, darunter Verträge und Abkommen, Urkunden Maria Theresias (November 1740), Schreiben des englischen Botschafters Hyndford sowie der berühmte Brief Friedrichs des Großen an den Marquis d'Argens aus Hermannsdorf vom 27. August 1760, aber auch zwei Schreiben der preußischen Königinmutter Sophie Dorothea von Hannover zur Heirat der Prinzessin Luise Ulrike mit dem schwedischen Kronprinzen (1744). Eine Vielzahl älterer Schreiben von Kurfürsten und deutschen regierenden Häusern an das französische Königshaus, verfasst zwischen 1570 und 1632, dürfte Valory nach seiner Rückkehr nach Frankreich in sein Arbeitsarchiv übernommen haben. Angereichert ist die Sammlung um einige spätere Stücke aus dem Besitz der Familie Boyer d'Eguilles (Billetts von Friedrich Wilhelm II., 1795/96). Valory hatte in Preußen Kontakt zur Familie; 1746/47 hatte er sich für die Freilassung von Alexandre-Jean-Baptiste d'Eguilles, Bruder des Marquis d'Argens, aus englischer Kriegsgefangenschaft eingesetzt. Der vorliegende Bestand bildet über weite Strecken die Quellengrundlage für die 1820 erschienenen Memoiren Valorys (Mémoires des négociations du marquis de Valori), in der auch wesentliche Teile publiziert sind. - Residuum der Sammlung Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872). Schöne und umfangreiche diplomatische Dokumentensammlung, die das preußisch-französische Verhältnis in den letzten Jahren vor dem "Renversement des alliances" abbildet.
Three vellum membranes. Later endorsements, a few early ink marginal markings and underlinings, substantial fragment of Great Seal in white wax pendant on original vellum tag, ink somewhat faded on first membrane, some light staining, seal discoloured and worn. Framed and glazed. An indenture detailing the exchange of lands between the crown and Thomas, 4th Duke of Norfolk, signed three times by the Queen, recording that the Duke will "sell geve and graunte unto our Soveraigne Ladie the Quene All those his Mannors & Lordshippes of Chesworth and Sedgewicke [...] in the County of Sussex [...] also all that mannor Lordshipp and Forest of St Leonard and all ground and Soyle of the same Forest And also all those his Parkes of Bewbushe and Shelley", and related lands and rights, in exchange for lands in royal gift including the "Celle of Sainte Leonard in her county of Norfolk" and associated lands and buildings "neare unto the Citie of Norwich", Norfolk lands formerly of Wymondham Abbey, lands in Essex (Wigborough, Saltcote, Tollesbury) that were formerly "assigned to the late Ladie Anne of Cleves" and also lands in "Pitchesey" (Pitsea) in the same county, the manor of Dowdike in Lincolnshire (previously of Crowland Abbey), and lands of Newenham Abbey in Devon. The indenture then lists the extensive debts of the Duke to the crown, further detailing that a portion of this debt is discharged by the value of the woodland hereby sold to the crown, and commands the exchequer to produce a new bond for the residue of the debt, being a mere £1823 15s. 5 3/4d. Signed by the Queen at the head of each membrane, additionally signed at the foot by the Lord Treasurer William Paulet, Marquess of Winchester ("Winchester"), the under-treasurer Richard Sackville, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Walter Mildmay. - Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (1538-72), was the head of the powerful Howard family. He was a Privy Councillor, had commanded English forces in Scotland at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, and was one of the greatest land-owners in the land, with estates centred on Norfolk. The agreement with the crown that is formalized in this document saw enormous tracts of land near Horsham in Sussex - including the 12 square miles of St Leonard's forest - conveyed to the crown. Norfolk gained considerable land in return, primarily former monastic land scattered across four counties, but - and this was probably of greater importance to him - he also saw his overall debt to the crown, which had been more that £6500, reduced by some £4680. The counterpart of this indenture remains in the Exchequer (The National Archives, E 211/39). Less than ten years after this agreement was made, Norfolk was executed for treason for conspiring with Mary, Queen of Scots. His son and heir, Philip, Earl of Arundel, was permitted to inherit most of his estates.
Chiefly 12mo. Altogether 10 pages on 9 ff. Series of nine letters, notes and cards (all in Gujarati), eight to Jamnabehn and one to Yashwant Prasad, comprising two autograph letters signed, three autograph cards signed, and four cards signed in pencil, discussing Gandhi's diet and health, refusing the offer of a blanket ("one that I have is enough"), and expressing his concern about Yashwant Prasad's heart condition: "Don’t worry about me. I take all the precautions necessary. God is there to take care of all of us. Before the Almighty we are helpless, worrying causes unnecessary problems [...]" (transl.). Jamnabehn, a member of the extended Gandhi clan, was an active weaver of khadi on the charkha and worked alongside Dadabhai Naroji's grandchildren Perin Ben Captain and Khrushed Behn. Most of these letters date from 1926, when Gandhi was living in self-imposed withdrawal from the public world at Sabarmati and experimenting with a diet of fruit. - Small burn holes to two letters, nicks and tears at edges; browned.
Oblong 4to (216 x 123 mm), mounted on cardboard (270 x 190 mm), showing some foxing throughout. Two quills used by J. W. v. Goethe are fastened with string to the lower part of the note. Framed and glazed. A note in German written to Wilhelmine Taschner, who had asked permission to meet Goethe and perhaps receive a small memento from the poet: "My father-in-law instructs me to let you know you that he much regrets his being unable to fulfil your wish, as his time is currently fully engaged by old acquaintances who are here at the moment. Yours, Ottilie v. Goethe". - In the 1820s Wilhelmine Taschner (1805-82), wife of the Eisenach physician Dr. Friedrich Taschner, visited Weimar and there called on her friend Ottilie von Goethe, receiving the two quills with the attached note. After Wilhelmine Taschner's death her husband gifted the ensemble to his foster daughter Else Dröseke, who married the educator Franz Emil Brandstätter of Witten. In the late 1920s the merchant Paul Geiss of Witten acquired the quills from the estate of Dr. Brandstäter through the intermediation of an acquaintance. Several attempts in the 1940s and 1950s at selling the mementos to the Frankfurt Goethe Museum, the Goethe House in New York, or to the oil magnate J. Paul Getty, were abandoned. The relevant correspondence and a contemporary newspaper report, which certify the provenance, are included.
4to. (197:244 mm). 1 page. On headed "air letter" paper. One of Hawking’s students, Gary Gibbons, is to attend the meeting of the American Physical Society in New Orleans from 23-25 November, "where he will report on the British work on the design and construction of gravitational wave detectors. We think that, without the use of liquid helium, we can improve the sensitivity by a factor of 100. The first of these detectors should be operating before the end of the year, and the second one at Reading should follow soon after". Hawking hopes that Gary might stay on after the New Orleans meeting to attend the relativistic astrophysics conference in Austin, with a visit to the University of Maryland in between, and asks for Misner’s help in organising this visit: [Joseph] Weber will be too busy to show Gibbons around, but Hawking notes that Gary should really see Misner and [Dieter] Brill: "he is primarily a theoretician and is interested in the problem of how much gravitational radiation would be emitted by a collapsing object". Hawking also announces the birth of a little girl, "Catherine Lucy, though we will probably call her Lucy", born a little plumper than Robert, and very well behaved. - In 2016, over 45 years after Stephen Hawking’s hopeful mention in the present letter of the gravitational wave detectors being built in England - and one hundred years after Albert Einstein first predicted the existence of gravitational waves - scientists would finally have proof of these elusive ripples in space-time: the unmistakeable "ringing" as two black holes collides was heard at the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) on 11 February 2016. When asked for comment, Hawking said that the discovery would "revolutionise" astronomy, noting also that it had proved his calculations of 1970 to be correct: "The observed properties of this system are consistent with predictions about black holes that I made in 1970 here in Cambridge". Hawking and his student Gary Gibbons would go on to collaborate in their research, lending their names to the "Gibbons-Hawking effect", "Gibbons-Hawking space", and the "Gibbons-Hawking ansatz". - Provenance: Charles W. Misner.
4to. 3½ pp. on 2 ff. With autogr. envelope. In Russian, to his third wife, Natalya Andreevna (née Manchenka, 1902-90), about a day he and Ivan Vassilyevitch Kljun spent together attending an exhibition of the Red Workers' and Peasants' Army with visiting officials. Kljun urged him to have his hair cut, as Malevich resembled a "savage". They failed to meet Lobanov, who wanted a landscape. "[...] You cannot imagine my sentiments. What else should I do, and how wait? I am completely starved, and although I have eaten quite well these two days at Ivan Vassilyevitch's, there is no way I might be satiated, and after all, I cannot live at his place, and there is nowhere for me to go. I still have no money to go to Nemchinovka and stay there overnight [...] It's simply a nightmare when the thought turns up that something might happen to me, a severe mental illness might afflict me. Tomorrow I will try to see mother, maybe I can raise some money there [...]". Malevich goes on to discuss his difficult relationship with his brother, and that he avoids seeing him: "That's what it amounts to, when a man has not a penny, everyone starts to lecture you and call you a fool [...]". Malewitsch über sich. Zeitgenossen über Malewitsch. Briefe. Dokumente. Erinnerungen. Kritik. Vol. 1, Moscow 2004, no. 43.
8vo. 2 pp. on bifolium. In German, to his friend, the writer and painter Reinhart von Seydlitz in Davos (Switzerland), inviting him to join Nietzsche and Malwida von Meysenbug in Sorrento: "My dear good friend, nothing but a query - apart from my most cordial thanks for your letter. Are you in sufficient health to make plans for the spring? I hope and wish so with all my heart. You would still find me in Sorrento. My two friends and companions [the philosopher Paul Rée and his student Albert Brenner] will be leaving me at the end of March, and I remain with Miss von Meysenbug [...] My eyes are worse, my head not significantly better - thus, to employ an ancient Italian phrase (first used by a Papal nepot when the bailiffs came to lead him to his death), 'Va bene, patienza!' - The days are of exceptional beauty; there is here a mixture of ocean, forest, and mountain climate, and numerous semi-darkened, quiet pathways. Many plans cross our minds (those of Miss v. M. and myself), and you always figure in them [...]". - During his 1876/77 sojourn on the gulf of Naples, Nietzsche was working on "Menschliches - Allzumenschliches". On November 6th, Richard and Cosima Wagner had abruptly quit Sorrento, departing for Rome; it had been the last meeting between the philosopher and the composer whom he had formerly idolized. - Well preserved. eKGWB/BVN-1877, 596.