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A collection of billets de mariage — small letterpress printed announcement cards sent out to friends and neighbours, as was customary in this period. Where a place is specified most here come from Mechelen/Malines, Antwerp or Brussels and some bear early annotation in what appears to be the same hand, adding dates and ages, suggesting they were collected at the time.

Ten have printed or manuscript dates, the others are typographically similar and probably date from the same period. The billets could be issued in the name of the parents, or by both the bride or groom. In one case, there is an example of a billet printed in 1807 for each of the latter: ‘Mlle. Marie-Anne-Thêrèse Scheppers a l’honneur d’annoncer son mariage avec Mr. Louis-Jean Merghelynck, Lieutenant de la Gendarmerie Impériale’, with its counterpart: ‘Mr Louis-Jean Merghelynck, Lieutenant de la Gendarmerie Impériale, a l’honneur d’annoncer son mariage avec Mademoiselle Marie-Anne-Thérèse Scheppers’ (the two cards with variant borders).

The earliest dated card reads: ‘Madame la douairière De Petit née Du Jardin, a l’honneur d’annoncer le mariage de sa fille cadette avec Monsieur de Torri, capitaine au corps-franc d’Odonell, au service de S. M. Impériale & Royale &c. &c. De l’imprimerie de P.J. Hanicq, à Malines, 1794 [the date of 17 February added in contemporary manuscript]’.

Another reveals an unexpected and intriguing conjugal story: ‘Monsieur Adolphe d’Aoust a l’honneur de faire pars de son mariage avec Madame de Trazegnie, ci-devant Chanoinesse de Mons’. Genealogical records confirm that monsieur d’Aoust (who was also a Marquis) did indeed marry the former canonness of Mons, Marie Josèphe Robertine Hyacinthe Albertine de Trazegnies, in May 1813.

An atmospheric series of watercoloured prints of the German-controlled Dutch-Belgian border in 1915 by a Belgian artist in exile in Holland. Issued in very small numbers (perhaps no more than 20 copies), it is marked ‘Série 1’, but no more were produced. Some of the images show the high-voltage electric fence erected by the Germans in 1915 to put an end to clandestine cross-border traffic between Holland and Belgium. On Belgian territory, the fence ran from the German border, from just behind Vaals (Limbourg) all the way to the Belgian coast. The Elektrische Grenzabsperrungszaun claimed many lives though smugglers soon refined their methods and the border was never completely sealed.
Willems had studied in England (notably the watercolours of Turner) but was at home with his family in Belgium when war broke out, fleeing to Holland in 1914, where these remarkable and evocative prints were produced and published the following year.

First edition, falsely dated 1914 to evade the censorship of the German occupying forces in Belgium and actually issued in 1918. A beautiful illustrated study of the iconography of the ancient Flemish versions of the game of lotto, including the symbolism of the playing cards. Max Elskamp (1862-1931) was one of the outstanding Belgian poets, notable for applying himself to every stage of book production, from the artistic direction to the finished product: writing, designing the layout, choosing the paper and typeface, page layout, illustration (often from his own woodcuts, as here) and printing. His books appeared in small print runs, as here. This is one of 300 regular copies (after 50 on Arches paper).