(CLAUSTHAL: MINE SURVEYING).

Manuscript on paper on mine surveying, with 12 large & fine folding manuscript plates, heightened in grey, blue, pink, & yellow wash.

40 leaves (the final blank). Small folio (332 x 210 mm.), orig. paste-paper boards (spine & extremities somewhat worn), uncut. [Clausthal?: ca. 1815].

A fine and legible manuscript instructional manual on techniques and problems of mine surveying. The text is divided into five chapters: “Von der Vorbereitung zum Markscheiden” (“On preparations for measuring the area in which mining may be carried out”), “Von Bennenung der Gänge und Klüfte” (“On the naming of seams and fissures”), “Vom Observiren” (“On Observations”), “Vom Vermaß oder Verbestimmung eines Grubenfelds” (“On measuring and defining a mining claim”), and “Von Wasserfällen, Wasserleitungen und Tiefbau” (“On waterfalls, water conduits and underground mining”).

This manuscript was probably prepared in 1815 — plate X has the entry “Markscheide 1.7.15“ — at the newly founded mining school at Clausthal, the famous mining town of the Harz Mountains in Lower Saxony (the fine plates name mining locations in the area).

The most attractive plates — all of which contain a number of figures — depict mine shafts, mine surveying methods, cartographical considerations, techniques of prospecting and identification of mineral deposits, problems of ownership rights, and the constant problems of flooding. All the plates are finely drawn in black ink and have been heightened in grey, blue, pink, and yellow wash.

Internally fine. Stamp of Georg Riemschneider (1888-1946), “Oberbergrat” of Clausthal-Zellerfeld.

Price: $6,500.00

Item ID: 6396