Archives and Documents

Charles George GORDON, aka “Gordon of Khartoum” (1833 - 1884).   Manuscript, [Khartoum, Autumn 1879].   An original manuscript of extraordinary quality and interest, being a report written by the legendary British soldier-adventurer Sir Charles George Gordon, aka “Gordon of Khartoum”, in his capacity as Governor-General of Sudan, in the service of the Egyptian Khedive, articulating his well-conceived plan to…

  This is a valuable manuscript archive relating to the Suez Canal, the project that utterly revolutionized global transportation, commerce and communications.  It is highlighted by a detailed letter written by one of the major stakeholders in project, written from Alexandria only a few days after Sa’id Pasha, the Viceroy of Egypt, formally approved Ferdinand de Lesseps’s proposal to build…

Thomas WINGATE (1807-1869) (att.). [S. l., S. d., but probably Pakistan or India, 1840]. A large original drawing showcasing the the Siege of Kahun in Balochistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War, probably drafted by an amateur artist and officer Thomas Wingate, later active in Australia. Watercolours on paper 28,5 x 41cm (11.2 x 16.1 inches), mounted with margins under old…

  A historically monumental, unrecorded field archive documenting the immediate practical, diplomatic, and economic implementation of the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718). This suite pairs the highly confidential, field-translated correspondence of the Ottoman Governor Mustafa Pasha with the exhaustive, two-part economic census of named frontier districts and Slavic estate owners ceded along the military demarcation lines of Habsburg Serbia—capturing the exact…

A unique manuscript French translation of an unpublished Turkish text with valuable information on Janissaries in the 16th century in Turkey, was written by a French Orentalist and translator Jean-Baptiste Adanson.

A unique and vital primary source on the history of what is today the United States Virgin Islands during the critical period of the Napoleonic Wars and the twilight of the West Indies sugar-slave economy, being the original manuscript letter book of William Manning, an English MP, tycoon, slave plantation owner and the Governor of the Bank of England, who…

A fascinating original manuscript letter shedding unique and valuable insights into the related wine and indigo trades in mid-19th century India, written by the leading Calcutta wine and indigo merchant James Lyall & Co., and addressed to the great ‘maison du vin’ of Clossman & Co. of Bordeaux, which details the risks involved in the generally lucrative importation of French…

  6 fascicules mimeographed text, all 4°. [1 pp.] title, 5 pp., 8 pp.; 8 pp.; 11 pp.; 7 pp.; 4 pp.; 6 pp., stapled (minor age-toning and foxing, but overall in a good condition).  

A fascinating and perhaps unparalleled archive that provides highly detailed and authentic insights into Guerilla Warfare Training, which played a vital role in the ultimate Allied victory in the Southwest Pacific Theatre of World War II, a topic often mentioned by historians, but seldom revealed as here; the archive is comprised of 23 elements, mostly lesson plans for specialist courses…