A charmingly illustrated record book kept by an 18th century Alsatian distiller

Hartmann d'Andlau, Louis. Magnificent calligraphy manuscript with 21 large-format calligraphies with numerous figurative and zoological original drawings by Louis Hartmann d'Andlau in Alsace.

€ 9,500.00

This stunning, late Baroque manuscript contains twenty-one large-format pages of calligraphy, decorated with original figurative, vegetal and zoological illustrations. Each page-filling design is enriched by floral leaf motifs and filigrees, containing Biblical quotations from Hebrews and Timothy, among other sources. In addition to flowers and blossoms, there are drawings of birds, insects, deer, trees with fruit, hunting scenes, soldiers and a cabin.

Drawn up around 1765 by a Louis Hartmann d'Andlau, in Alsace, the book forms a record of the actions of the landowner in the bottling and sale of brandy. For a period of some thirty years, up to the 1790s, he carefully records the dates, quantities and types of liquor sold, as well as the buyers. There is also an entry in which the landlord records the loan of money to an officer of the Légion de Conflans (f. 30v; the regiment is also mentioned on f. 48r), whose green jackets might well be the ones depicted in the drawings. The binding, covered in equations and bearing the name of its owner, is testimony to the commercial and everyday uses the book once served.