1809 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT HONORS BOOK WITH ROYAL WAX SEAL DEDICATED TO THE AUSTRIAN INFANTRY COMMANDER

(OSTERMAN, Georgii) GLASVITS, Ludovicum de. Dedication Book to Georgii Osterman, Commander of the Austrian Infantry. No place, dated 1809. Folio, full rose velvet, marbled endpapers, spine stitched with heavy gold cord attached to a custom brass case holding large (5 3/4 inch diameter) red wax royal seal of the Emperor Francis; ten leaves on vellum. $1200.

1809 illuminated manuscript honors book with royal wax seal, dedicated to the Commander of the Austrian Infantry in the region of what was then Hungary.

With a magnificent full-color illuminated frontispiece coat-of-arms, gilt paper-guarded lettering throughout the manuscript text, and elaborate hand-scrolled frames surrounding each page, this volume, with text, in Latin, lists the acts, mostly administrative, for which George Osterman and his four sons serving with him (Franciscum, Georgium, Josephus, and Joannem) are awarded honors. With the treaty of Vienna in 1809, the year this dedication was issued, Austria underwent further losses; much of the country's territory and power was restored by the treaties of Paris and Vienna in 1814 and 1815. Attached by heavy cord to the book and encased in brass is the large wax royal seal of the Emperor Francis, who formally abdicated his title as Holy Roman Emperor in 1806 after the treaty of Pressburg. Signed by a witness, Josephus Erdody, and by the writer, Ludovicum de Gaszvits, the Emperor's secretary and director of registrar and archives.

Some wear and fading to velvet binding, interior clean; wax seal fine. A splendid manuscript presentation.