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Rare and Antiquarian Books

Manuscripts & Original Documents

If you are looking to expand your collection of rare books, many of our booksellers also offer for sale manuscripts and other original documents. From ephemera related to famous authors to unique governmental missives, Biblio has a range of items available for purchase, some of them quite valuable indeed. Many of the available items are signed or inscribed by relevant parties, and some of the manuscripts date as far back as the mid 1800's. The art of collecting manuscripts and documents is similar to the art of collecting rare books, and we always recommend handling such delicate items with care and precision. You may well be handling important parts of literary and world history, and proper storage and display of fragile and valuable works is always encouraged.

Results 1 - 15 of 134
In Ole Virginia or Marse Chan and Other Stories
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In Ole Virginia or Marse Chan and Other Stories

by Page, Thomas Nelson

  • Used
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
San Anselmo, California
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This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$850.00
$6.50 shipping to USA

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New York. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1887. Bound in pictorial decorated, gilt titled green cloth. 12mo. The First Edition. Includes an ALS by the author to "Mr. W.M. Burnettlaid-on to the front free end sheet. Written in a bold hand in ink upon a single sheet (4.25" x 7") bearing the imprint "Jekyll Island Club, Brunswick, Georgia". Letter reads, "My dear Mr. Burnett: I not only comply with your request with pleasure, but thank you for a great favor you have done me. Your pleasant words the other day made a green spot in what was a dry and tedious journey and I have born them in kindly rememberance ever since. Yours very sincerely Thomas Nelson Page. Slight lean to volume. Covers very mildly worn. Corners gently bumped. Bookplate to flyleaf. Some very occasional and incidental internal soiling. Letter presents evidence of offset due to insufficient blotting at time of composition. A Very Good copy of the authors first book, with a Very Good crisp and most legible… Read More
Item Price
$850.00
$6.50 shipping to USA
Historical Erotic Epistolary from the 1910s with More than One Hundred Original Color and Black...
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Historical Erotic Epistolary from the 1910s with More than One Hundred Original Color and Black and White Drawings

by [An Italian Officer]

  • Used
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Schenectady, New York
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 2 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$12,000.00
$6.50 shipping to USA

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Hardcover. A unique look at human sexuality and literary Romantic love in the early part of the twentieth century during the colonial and modernist eras. As noted by the famous French philosopher Michel Foucault in his "repressive hypothesis," the age of Victorian repression clearly produced non-traditional expressions of lust. The epistolary consists of an original diary and correspondence between two lovers from 1912 to approximately 1916. It is written primarily in English with some excerpts in Italian. The primary diarist is presumed to be an Italian officer during the colonial era of the early 20th century involving Italy, Britain and the "Mad Mullah" in the Benadir region of East Africa. The other correspondent is probably a British lady living in Tuscany at the time. The epistolary includes more than one hundred original drawings of various sexual acts, most of which are in color and include detailed descriptions of the scenes depicted. Some images are watercolors, some pastels, and others are… Read More
Item Price
$12,000.00
$6.50 shipping to USA
Autograph Letter Signed
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Autograph Letter Signed

by SCOTT, G. Herbert (1888-1930)

  • Used
  • Signed
Condition
Used
Seller
Galena, Illinois
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$675.00
$5.00 shipping to USA

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British airship commander, the first to use a British airship on patrol in World War One and the first to make a transatlantic airship flight in 1919. ALS, 2pp (single leaf), 4½" X 7½", Cardington, England, 1930 February 25. Addressed to the librarian of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. Near fine. Single original mailing fold. Blind-embossed crest. Boldly penned in blue fountain pen from the "Royal Airship Works," Scott transmits "the 'Royal Aeronautical Society' Journal, of November 1929 [not present], which include a copy of the lecture I gave before the Society, on the subject of 'Handling & Mooring of Airships'...." Handsomely signed in full. Scott was killed eight months later in the spectacular crash of the airship R 101 in northern France -- which signaled the end of Britain's interest in dirigibles. Extremely scarce in this form, especially with dirigible content.
Item Price
$675.00
$5.00 shipping to USA
No. 10: Supreme Virtue [Autograph manuscript]
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No. 10: Supreme Virtue [Autograph manuscript]: Double SATB choir

by ADAMO, Mark b. 1962

  • Used
  • Signed
Condition
Used
Seller
Syosset, New York
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$3,220.00
$12.50 shipping to USA

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Description:
Oblong quarto (278 x 208 mm). Unbound, folded. 29 pp. + 2 pp. of additional manuscript apparently not included in the final version. Notated in pencil on 16-stave paper. Signed and dated New York, Jan-April 1997. Supreme Virtue was commissioned by the Dale Warland Singers with the support of the Jerome Foundation and the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University. The Dale Warland Singers premiered the work in Minneapolis in June 2000. The text consists of an English translation by Stephen Mitchell of verses from the "Tao te Ching." It was first recorded by the Seattle-based chamber choir Esoterics on the Terpsichore label in the winter of 2008. "For a few years I was the tenor section leader of a choir in Washington, and in singing with and composing for them I'd become more and more interested in the quasi-instrumental vocal gesture. Stephen Mitchell's pellucid translation of this verse of the Tao te ching - a series of moral challenges all beginning with the words "Can you?" - spurred me to… Read More
Item Price
$3,220.00
$12.50 shipping to USA
Thurber's Dogs. Suite for Orchestra after Drawings by James Thurber. Movement VI: Hunting Hounds....

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Folio (ca. 356 x 278 mm.). Unbound. 9 leaves notated in pencil on one side of each leaf of 18-stave AZTEC C-18 music manuscript paper. A working manuscript, with erasures, alterations and cancellations. Together with: A copy of the published full score of the movement, i.e., pp. 107-138, and a 1-1/2 page printed commentary by the composer discussing the background of the work and briefly describing the music: "I should say, however, that as I was working on the last movement, I found myself thinking as much about the fox as about the hunting hounds. This, coupled with the fact that I recently acquired a recording of background music from the old movie serials that I used to go to as a kid, probably accounts for the quite ungentlemanly, almost lurid quality of the chase music." "Thurber's Dogs was commissioned for the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus and the Thurber House to commemorate the 100th birthday anniversary of author James Thurber. It was completed on August 13, 1994. The first… Read More
Item Price
$3,220.00
$12.50 shipping to USA
UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT: ALASKAN. LET THERE BE LIGHT

UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT: ALASKAN. "LET THERE BE LIGHT"

by MILLER, Joaquin

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Fine and rare, beautifully bound
Edition
First Edition
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Fleetwood, Pennsylvania
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$31,250.00
$8.00 shipping to USA

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Description:
First Edition. Hardcover. Fine and rare, beautifully bound. Folio (8-1/4" x 11-3/4") consisting of 53 pages numbered to 54 (one page contains two numbers) on lined yellow paper with a few additions at the end on white paper pasted to the yellow pages with a calligraphic title page facing a photographic reproduction of Miller. Bound in 3/4 maroon morocco leather and marbled boards housed in a slipcase of full burgundy morocco leather. Though some of the phrases, such as the title, are used in other of Miller's works, this long narrative poem appears to be unpublished. The poem begins: "In the morning of the world;/Ere the holy stars were born--/Early morning of the world;/O, that wondrous, wondrous morn!" We have at this point not read much else because our lives are short and Miller's handwriting is trying, but we are fairly confident that the text deals at least in part with the Alaskan Gold Rush of the 1890s as Miller visited the Klondike during that time returning to California after six months,… Read More
Item Price
$31,250.00
$8.00 shipping to USA
The Author's Original Typed Manuscript for Journey in the Dark.
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The Author's Original Typed Manuscript for "Journey in the Dark.

by Flavin, Martin

  • Used
Condition
Used
Seller
Pasadena, California
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$8,500.00
$4.00 shipping to USA

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Description:
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1943. The author's original hand-corrected typescript for his most important work, "Journey in the Dark," which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944. Donated by Flavin to the US Treasury Department "to help the war financing campaign," with a certificate from "The Books and Authors War Bond Committee" dated May, 1945. This typescript purchased by or for Seton Hill College in Greensburg, PA, as printed on the certificate. A note in the author's hand reads as follows: "This is the original MS of "Journey in The Dark," as I wrote it at the rate of about 500 words a day between April 1941 and July 1943. I compose on a typewriter, and though I may write a page a dozen times, when I finally leave it, it is finished. Indeed, long before this book was finished, it was going into galleys. I use loose leaf paper - keeping the work in binders as it progresses. Martin Flavin | May 15th 1944." Two cover sheets typed by the publisher with the title and list of other works by Flavin… Read More
Item Price
$8,500.00
$4.00 shipping to USA
An Archive of Over 100 significant Letters and Documents in the Period 1907-1919 of One of the...

An Archive of Over 100 significant Letters and Documents in the Period 1907-1919 of One of the Earliest Telephone Companies In Ohio

by North Electric Company

  • Used
Condition
Used
Seller
Scottsdale, Arizona
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Item Price
$475.00
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Description:
Quarto. The collection contains 125 pieces of original correspondence including both TLS (Typed Letters Signed) and ((LS) Letters Signed. What began as a small electrical shop for the repair and manufacture of telephone equipment in 1884 as the north Electric Works grew to become the North Electric Company in 1889. By the early 20th Century the company became one of the most prominent manufacturing business in Ohio employing over 300 workers. After being in business for over a century, the business first was taken over by Ericsson and the by IYTY. These letters pertain to the problems stemming from a patent for the automatic ringing mechanism, switch boards and operators as well as dealing with their manufacture under Canadian Parents which became know as the Telechronometer Co. The big change ended the flat-rate system and introduced meters which could measure the length of calls and, of course, increase the cost to the consumer. For the next sixty years, the telephone company became a monopoly… Read More
Item Price
$475.00
$8.00 shipping to USA
FINE AND RARE ARABIC MANUSCRIPT OF ZUBDAT UL AMTHAL (ESSENCE OF PROVERBS)
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FINE AND RARE ARABIC MANUSCRIPT OF ZUBDAT UL AMTHAL (ESSENCE OF PROVERBS)

by MUSTAFA B. IBRAHIM AL RUMI AL HANAFI (D. 1176 AH- 1762 AD)

  • Used
  • as new
  • Hardcover
Condition
As New
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$8,000.00
$15.50 shipping to USA

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Description:
Handwritten. As New. Hardcover. 12mo - over 6¾ - 7¾" tall. 118 PP, VERY FINE ARABIC TA'LIQ SCRIPT WITH GOLDEN DOTS BENEETH THE PROVERBS. FINE OTTOMAN STYLE HEADING ILLUMINATION IN BRIGHT GOLD AND NATURAL COLORS. ALL PAGES OUTRULED IN GOLD. CHAPTER AND CEGNIFICANT WORDS IN RED. MARGINAL NOTES IN FINE TA'LIQ SCRIPT. COLOPHON WITH SCRIBE NAME: MUHAMMAD B. AHMAD. OWNERSHIP ON THE FIRST PAGE AND SMALL TUGRA. THIS WORK WAS MAINLY WRITTEN FOR THE OTTOMAN SULTAN MURAD KHAN B. SELIM KHAN B. SULEYMAN KHAN. CONTEMPORARY OTTOMAN STYLE BINDING. 12th - 18th C. SCARCELY TO BE EXIST ON THIS SUBJECT. 0.
Item Price
$8,000.00
$15.50 shipping to USA
Producers' names of Eastern Macedonia. Crops 1975 - 1988 / Ονοματα Παραγωγων...
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Producers' names of Eastern Macedonia. Crops 1975 - 1988 / Ονοματα Παραγωγων Ανατολικης Μακεδονιας. Εσοδεια 1975 – 1988: Prices of their tobacco bought by Vassilis Ioannidis / τιμες των καπνων τους που αγορασε ο Βασιλειος Ιωαννιδης

by Ioannidis, Vassilis

  • Used
  • near fine
  • Paperback
Condition
Used - Near Fine
Binding
Paperback
Seller
Thessaloniki, Greece
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$383.35
$14.50 shipping to USA

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Description:
Manuscripts with thousands of producers and their villages in a paperback Dossier. In images you can see examples of prices (image_3) & villages (image_4). GREEK text.
Item Price
$383.35
$14.50 shipping to USA
Poems (Two) 1925 Simultaneous [Signed, Typed Manuscript Poem]
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Poems (Two) 1925 Simultaneous [Signed, Typed Manuscript Poem]

by Cunard, Nancy

  • Used
  • Fine
  • Paperback
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Used - Fine
Edition
1st Edition
Binding
Paperback
Seller
Las Vegas , Nevada
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$2,500.00
$8.50 shipping to USA

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Description:
London: The Aquilla Press, 1930 Original typed Manuscript, Signed by Nancy Cunard, with 5 corrections. First appeared in print under the title, "Poems (Two) 1925"; published 1930 by The Aquilla Press. Three loose 8vo sheets, previously stapled. Three of the corrections are minor but one alters the original 40th line from "Cools at the still, yeasts raise his auburn flour" to Yeast raising auburn flour." In line 47 Cunard corrects the spelling of the word, "orgu[e]illeux" by adding the e, but it never made it into the published work. Signed in pencil, "Nancy Cunard 1925'" at the bottom of the poem. Age toning, paper-clip ghost, minimal wear, else in fine condition.
Item Price
$2,500.00
$8.50 shipping to USA
MASSIVE ARCHIVE OF THOUSANDS OF ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS AND PHOTOGRAPHIC SLIDES, ALONG WITH NUMEROUS...

MASSIVE ARCHIVE OF THOUSANDS OF ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS AND PHOTOGRAPHIC SLIDES, ALONG WITH NUMEROUS AUDIO RECORDINGS, COMPILED BY JACOB HARRIS, AN AMERICAN WHO SERVED AS A SENIOR POLICE ADVISOR IN VIETNAM AND THAILAND DURING THE VIETNAM WAR

by HARRIS, JACOB

  • Used
  • first
Condition
Used
Edition
First edition
Seller
Greencastle, Pennsylvania
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Item Price
$15,000.00
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Vietnam, Thailand, and elsewhere in Asia as well as the United States, Europe, and the Middle East ca. 1964-1974: Compiled by Jacob Harris, an American who served as a Senior Police Advisor in Vietnam and Thailand during the Vietnam War, 1964 - 1974., 1964 - 1974. First edition. A large and remarkable archive of images from Vietnam and Thailand, covering the decade from the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the beginning of the buildup of American forces in Vietnam to a year before the evacuation of the American embassy. Most notable are the many images showing the training of local security forces by American civil and military advisors. The collection was compiled by Jacob Harris, an employee of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Public Safety (OPS), whose task was to train Vietnamese and Thai police and counterinsurgency forces. Most of the images, in the form of photographs and photographic slides, were created by Harris, his wife, or his associates, and… Read More
Item Price
$15,000.00
$9.50 shipping to USA
Vellum indenture of lease and release between Christopher Gullett of Exeter, gentleman, and the...
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Vellum indenture of lease and release between Christopher Gullett of Exeter, gentleman, and the Rev. Saint Andrew Saint John, John Burton, and Ambrose Hall

  • Used
  • near fine
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Near Fine
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Lansdowne, Pennsylvania
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$129.00
$4.70 shipping to USA

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Description:
1776. Near Fine. 56 x 75 cm. Attractive calligraphy on vellum. Christopher Gullett of Exeter, gentleman, grants to the Rev. Saint Andrew Saint John of Somerly in Southampton Co., John Burton of Jacobstow in Devon Co., esq., and Ambrose Hall of London, administrators and assigns, the property known as Hayton in Sampford Spiney, Devon Co. With an ebossed grey-and-gilt one shilling stamp affixed to one side and an engraved stamp on the reverse; and the signature of Christopher Gullett at the lower edge with a red seal. Sealed and delivered in the presence of Wm. Kirkby and H. Hall. In Near Fine Condition: exterior when folded slightly soiled; otherwise, clean and bright.
Item Price
$129.00
$4.70 shipping to USA
Li'l' Gal (Inscribed with Original Poem and Signed by Author)
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Li'l' Gal (Inscribed with Original Poem and Signed by Author)

by Dunbar, Paul Laurence

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Used - Good-
Edition
First Edition
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Madison, Indiana
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$4,000.00
$6.00 shipping to USA

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Description:
New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1904. First Edition. Signed. Hardcover. Octavo. 8.75 x 5.75 inches. 123 pp (unpaginated). Good-. No dust jacket as issued. Inscribed with original poem and signed by author on front free endpaper. Original publisher's olive-green cloth binding. Floral decorations stamped on front board and spine. Lettered in gilt. Top edge gilt. Foredge deckled. Sewn binding. Printed on heavy, coated paper. Illustrated with 67 black and white photographs by Leigh Richmond Miner of the Hampton Institute Camera Club. Each page bordered with art nouveau floral decorations in dusty peach by Margaret Armstrong. Case has edge, shelf, and corner rubbing. Corners bumped. Circular water stain in center of upper board. Bump to foot of text block fore edge. Case and endpapers separated from text block. Text block cracked and shaken. Stitching tender. Endpapers browned. Grubby finger soiling to many pages. All elements present. Inscription in Dunbar's hand (see photo) is a short seasonal poem not… Read More
Item Price
$4,000.00
$6.00 shipping to USA
Catalogue des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique
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Catalogue des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique

by Staff Written

  • Used
  • good
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Frederick, Maryland
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This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$199.99
$5.99 shipping to USA

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Description:
Henri Lamertin, 1901. Hardcover. Good. Complete 13-volume set of the Catalogue des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique - a catalogue of the voluminous manuscript holdings of the Belgian Royal Library in Brussels. Bruxelles, Henri Lamertin, 1901. Rebound in library buckram. Over 6,000 pages of entries. Text in French. Includes the following: Écriture sainte et Liturgie, Patrologie, ThéologieJurisprudence et Philosophie, Histoire & Hagiographie, Histoire des ordres religieux et des églises particulières, Histoire des Pays: Allemagne, Angleterre, Autriche, Belgique (histoire générale), Histoire de Belgique (Histoire particulière): Anvers et Brabant, Flandre, Hainaut, Liège, Limbourg, Luxembourg et Namur, Histoire d'Espagne, de France et d'Italie Histoire de Hollande Mélanges d'histoire, Géographie, Voyages, Itinéraires,… Read More
Item Price
$199.99
$5.99 shipping to USA