Prints & Drawings

[Michelangelo Buonarroti]

Album with 70 ink and wash studies after the "Last Judgment", preserving Michelangelo's original fresco designs, S.a. [ca. 1560]. [Rome].

Studies of Michelangelo's original, un-bowdlerized designs for the Last Judgment, owned by Leopoldo Cicognara

Album of seventy studies after the "Last Judgment", preserving Michelangelo's original fresco designs and thus almost certainly made during his lifetime, as the frescoes were bowdlerized on the orders of the Council of Trent shortly after his death in 1564. From the famous library of the Italian art historian and collector Leopoldo Cicognara (1767-1834).

Requena y Herrera, Francisco

A collection of five watercolour drawings from the Luso-Hispanic Border Commission in the Amazon Basin, drawn by its Spanish commanding officer: Parte del camino de tierra de Quito al R. Napo (Lamina I); Vista de la Poblacion y Fortaleza de S. Fran[is]co , [c.1788]. [Ega (i.e. Tefé, Brazil)].

Unique 18th-Century Watercolors of the Deepest Amazon by the Boundary Commissioner in charge of the Spanish Survey party

A collection of five stunning and previously unknown watercolors illustrating dramatic scenes from the joint Spanish-Portuguese boundary commission sent to demarcate the frontiers of the Amazon following the 1777 Treaty of San Ildefonso between Portugal and Spain.

Vericci, Marco

"Inmaginationi Millitari", Venice, 20. IX. 1595.

Fifty imaginary island cities, drawn for the Doge of Venice

Unique album with splendid manuscript designs for imaginary fortified cities, created for and dedicated to Marino Grimani in the year of his appointment as Doge of the City and Republic of Venice, which he would reign over until his death. Grimani served as Superintendent of Fortresses before becoming Doge and worked for many years on the design and construction of the Palmanova fortress, the greatest of the Renaissance star forts and constantly embattled by the Ottomans as well as by other forces for centuries to come. Vericci's album constitutes a paragon of Renaissance idealism: a utopian vision which champions the might derived from pushing human genius to the limits of the imagination, combining mathematics, philosophy, and military prowess with art, poetry, and design. Little is known about the author-artist Marco Vericci, some of whose other ingenious military designs survive in the Biblioteca Bertoliana in Vicenza, but he may have worked with Grimani on the designs for Palmanova.

Bainbrigge, Philip John (attributed to)

“Melicent Indians: New Brunswick – In gala dresses dancing the Snake dance. April 1841”, 1841. Canada.

Maliseet First Nation dancers painted by a royal engineer

A fine watercolour depicting a group of thirteen men and women dancing outdoors in a pine forest, one cradling an infant. Identified in the caption to the verso as “Melicent Indians”, this is likely a mis transcription of Malecite or Maliseet, both names used for the Wolastoqiyik Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy.

Bainbrigge, Philip John (attributed to)

“Brookeville – Upper Canada”, inscribed “Brookeville – Upper Canada” to the lower left and “Brookeville” on the lower right, 1840. Ontario, Canada.

A St Lawrence River scene by a royal engineer

A fine picturesque watercolour of two First Nations canoeists on the St Lawrence River in Ontario, with the town of Brockville in the background, including a view of the blockhouse on what was then known as Refuge or Grant’s Island.

[Illuminated leaf]

A giant choirbook leaf with decorated borders, c. 1510. Spain, Castile.

Stunning illuminated Spanish giant choirbook leaf

This is an astonishing Spanish illuminated leaf, both for decoration and scale, with the four borders finely illuminated, the border is black-ruled on the outside and gold framed on the inside, the background is deep blue with gold and green foliage with white, pink and flowers and strawberries and a butterfly, playing among the foliage fronds are three putti: one holds a club and a shield and is holding a mock-battle with a flightless bird; three large miniatures of angels with multi-coloured wings are shown kneeling on grass holding up the burial cloth of Christ showing the blood of the Five Wounds, each with the inscription "miserere mei”, the backgrounds of the miniatures deep blue with liquid gold penwork. Within the text is a large and elegant initial ‘G’.

Hörmannsperger, Johann Franz

Baroque pattern book and album of the blanket maker Johann Franz Hörmannsperger, Vienna, 1736.

Album of the Imperial blanket maker J. F. Hörmannsperger

Unique, museum-quality document of late Baroque craftsmanship among the urban Third Estate: apart from 58 meticulously executed textile designs, the album contains seven large-format gouaches showing the self-assured author practising his trade in his workshop, advertising and selling his wares to customers, as well as playing music and even bowling, but also attending the general meeting of the Viennese blanket makers. The engravings which Hörmannsperger inserted between his own works all show mundane subjects (dwarfs, soldiers, caricatures, etc.): thus, his autograph textile designs and gouaches are interleaved with some of the rarest and most charming pieces produced by the 1720's Augsburg school of engraving.

[Colombian watercolors] [Castillo, Jose Santiago del; Dominguez del Castillo, Jose Pio]

Colombian watercolors, [c.1830’s]. [Colombia].

Exceptional collection of watercolors from Colombia from the earliest stages of the Republic including works from two well-known Colombian artists

Wonderful iconographic record of Colombia in the last years of the 1830’s, comprised of 27 watercolors, one of the largest groups of watercolors we have seen of Colombia, portraying local costumes, landscapes, city views, the native population, etc., the work of mostly two talented artists: Jose S. Castillo and Joseph Pio Dominguez, all mostly dated from 1837, one dated 1832.

[Spanish military forces drawing] [Charles III (1716-1788), King of Spain]

'Real plan del exercito de S. M. Co. Carlos Tercero en l'año de M.DCC.LXVIII [Manuscript schema of the armed forces of Charles III], 1768. Madrid.

Remarkable depiction of the Spanish Armed Forces under Charles III

A unique and attractive watercolor broadside depiction of the military and maritime armed forces of Spain in full pomp and splendor, representing the sweeping changes introduced under the wise leadership of Charles III of Spain, a reforming ruler, produce of the Spanish Enlightenment, and partially due to the defeat in Havana in 1762.

Pieter Idserts[z], de Stadt

Nieû Amsterdam in Oosteinden, [Franeker, the Netherlands,] 1765.

A recently-discovered watercolor of New York, contemporary with the Stamp Act Riots and one of only a handful of manuscript views of the city from before the Revolution.

Artist Pieter Idsertsz depicts New York as seen from the southwest, from a vantage point across the East River in Brooklyn, possibly at Red Hook. The city is shown from the southern tip of Manhattan Island to just above the site of the present Brooklyn Bridge, with many fine residences against a backdrop of a large windmill and impressive churches. At far left two fine vessels sail down the East River toward New York Bay, men fish from a small boat in the foreground, and a crane and a gallows-complete with hanging victim-lend a jarring note at center right.

Dominguez, José

A los Amantes de las bellas artes, S.a. [Mid to late 18th century]. S.l. [Spain].

Superb Spanish Romantic drawings representing the alphabet with mythological themes

Exceptional Spanish drawings of the alphabet allegorical to a Greek or Roman deity, by a Spanish artist, bound in France contemporaneously; each of the drawings represent a letter from the alphabet corresponding to a mythological (mostly Roman) figure, all in strong vibrant colors heightened in gold and silver(?) in baroque or romantic style, naked figures dominate the scene, which leads one to believe the artist, of Spanish origin, probably executed these drawings in France, or studied in France, and which would explain the fact that it is housed in a fine French red morocco.

[Cerceau, Jacques Androuet du] [Album of 22 hand-colored engravings from the so-called "Small Landscape" series]

Album of 22 hand-colored engravings from the so-called "Small Landscape" series, [ca.1540]. [Probably Paris, France].

Perhaps the first series of landscape prints made in France

Exceptional series of fantastical landscapes by du Cerceau, the first such series printed in France, here transformed with remarkable contemporary color and highlighted with gold; this is also the first series printed by du Cerceau and represents the birth of independent landscape printing in France. This album is the only known copy of these engravings in contemporary color, it is also the only known example of one of the etchings, not present in any of the other 8 copies known; overall, it is a significant discovery for the history of French printmaking history and Renaissance art.

Shippard, Captain William Henry

Mexican Antiquities, Captain William Henry Shippard’s collection of Mexican Paintings: art and images of Pre-Columbian Mexico; printed prospectuses for the Museum of Mankind in London, and original letters], S.a., ca. 1834 – 1845. London.

Extensive Group of Drawings of Pre-Columbian Mexican Imagery
Created by a British Collector, Lecturer, Museologist, 1830s-1840s
A Friend of George Catlin

A remarkable collection of ca. 1830-40’s pen and ink drawings, most with vibrant hand coloring, depicting the art and imagery of Pre-Columbian Mexico, created and assembled by Capt. William Henry Shippard, an interesting but little-researched figure active in early 19th century British collecting circles. At the time when Shippard amassed the present group of Mesoamerican visual material, he was focused on an intriguing museum project: the Museum of Mankind in London. While Shippard's plans for a museum came to nought, he remained an avid collector of Pre-Columbian Mexican visual material throughout the 1840s and occasionally lectured on the subject in London using items from his collection as visual aids.

Reserved

[Early woodcut, Saint Hieronymus (347 - 420)]

Gebet zu S. Hieronymus: O Säliger und hoher Lehrer Hieronymus, S.a. [circa 1498]. [Augsburg]. [Johann Froschauer].

Fascinating German woodcut with explanatory text from the 15th century

Laid paper, without or with indistinct watermark, a good impression of this extremely rare woodcut, printing strongly and clearly, with contemporary hand-colouring in green, ochre, brown and red, with the prayer in German ‘O Säliger und hoher lerer Jheronyme’ in letterpress below, with margins on all sides. Lightly wormed, lower right corner torn and repaired with loss of some words in the last two lines, browned, lightly soiled, evidence of glue on verso.

[Art] [English drawings] [Merswin, Rulman]

A Representation of the Nine Rocks, S.a. [second half of the 18th century?]. [England].

Exceptional set of English watercolors representing the ´Nine Rocks´

A fabulous series of 18th century English watercolours illustrating the Neunfelsenbuch, or ´Nine Rocks´, by the German 14th century mystic, this set represents a very rare show of English 18th century art. They are a highly decorative set of images representing the stages of progress towards religious perfection.

[Roman marble funerary plaque]

A Roman marble funerary plaque inscribed for the freedwoman Quirinia Felicula, Rome, 1st half of 1st century CE.

To the memory of a formerly enslaved woman, freed by her mistress

A tablet of marble engraved with five lines within a double-rule border, commemorating the dedication of a funerary urn to Quirina Felicula, who had been born a slave and was freed by her mistress. The plaque reads, in full: "Quiriniae [mulieris] l[ibertae] / Feliclae / ollam dat / C[aius] Valerius / Pylodamus", that is to say: "Gaius Valerius Pylodamus (= Philodamus?) dedicated this burial urn for the freedwoman Quirinia Felicla (= Felicula)".

Prints & Drawings

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