Rare Books and Manuscripts on Show at TEFAF 2025

The annual TEFAF Maastricht fine arts and design fair will once again offer rare book dealers the chance to offer some of their most interesting items, running March 15-20.

Among them is Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books which returns with a new display of illuminated manuscripts and rare miniatures. The centerpiece of its selection this year is the Roman d'Alexandre en prose, manuscript in French on vellum, and made between 1290 and 1300. This rare manuscript tells the epic tale of Alexander the Great and features scenes of battles with fierce giants and fire-breathing dragons, plus Alexander diving into the depths of the ocean, protected by a glass submarine and surrounded by a host of fantastic sea creatures and mysterious deep-sea people.

Other highlights include the Spitzer Hours, a masterpiece of 16th century Flemish book illumination, and The Hachette Hours, a tiny, gilded prayerbook made in 1508-1512 for the future French Queen Claude de France. 

Also at TEFAF will be Peter Harrington who will be offering James and Cecilia Glaisher’s rare Snow Crystals, and a group of Kelmscott Press books personally presented by William Morris to Edward Burne-Jones, as well as first editions of:

• Emile-Allain Seguy’s Insectes, complete and inscribed “Pour Colette Gueden, la fée primavera, son ami E. A. Seguy, Julliet 39”
• James Joyce’s Chamber Music (1907), the author’s first book, prompting his resignation from his employment at a bank two months before publication. This copy is from the library of Geoffrey Arundel Whitworth, the founder of the British Drama League, who began working for the publisher Chatto & Windus in the same year
• De Americaensche Zee-Roovers (1678), the original and rare firsthand account of swashbuckling Caribbean pirates, with 12 engravings, and the first complete copy at auction since 1894  
• Charles Darwin’s 1859 On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, a presentation copy inscribed to fellow scientist “Dr Weddell Bagnères-de-Bigorre from the author”

London-based dealer Amir Mohtashemi will be bringing an album of watercolours by Frenchman Olivier Bro de Comères resulting from a trip to Algeria in 1832 during which he documented the architecture, costumes, landscapes, and people he encountered. Among these was Sidi Galfallah, a soldier renowned for his bravery, who also captured the imagination of his father’s friend Alexandre Dumas who is believed to have used Galfallah as an inspiration for the character Maximilien Morel in The Count of Monte Cristo, and possibley those too of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.