Album "Ricordi" [Memories, Mementos]; Memorial Scrapbook
[Vienna]: Self, [1823]. ––––. 12 x 17 cm. 63 unnumbered leaves, vellum binding with elaborate handtooled decoration and impressed title "Recordi" recto. Red glassine pastedown front with mounted handpainted frontispiece ilustration, signed "W Fell Napoli 1823", With 10 exquisite handpainted gouache illustrations: floral, botanical and Neoclassical landscapes with figures and putti, some with inscriptions verso in Italian, German or English, plus two handwritten memento texts: In English "He hath fallen asleep...." and in French: Cross-motif enclosing 1830 date, unreadable original text ending "Maria Batthyany(x) ,,,,1827", followed by added text "x née d’ Esterhazy 2 Marz 1791. Fille des Comte Charles d’ Esterhazy de Galanthe / Morte 31 Mars 1830”. Bound on rear pastedown: Calling card “La Comtesse Batthyány / née / Comtesse d’ Eszterhazy”. Vellum binding, overall very good condition. (124664). Item #22333
The Batthyany and Eszterhazy families (Austro-Hungarian) date back to medieval times and are still entitled to use the Comte/Comtesse titles. A geneological search fails to turn up reference to either Charles or Marie.
Price: $250.00