Author: [ALBUM AMICORUM - HEINRICH, Carl Gottlieb].
Title: [Album amicorum of Carl Gottlieb Heinrich with entries written in Bischofswerda and surroundings, The Netherlands, France, Batavia in the Dutch East Indies, Bengal, and Reading, England].[Bischofswerda and surroundings, etc., 1802-1818]. 8vo oblong (12.8 x 18.2 cm). Richly illustrated with 13 watercolour drawings, some full-page, of tombs, a temple of friendship, vases, hunting scene, nice portraits, basket with fruit, etc., 2 views: washed drawings of Cape Town (folding) and Jamestown, St Helena, 2 drawings of children and an altar, 6 (stippled) engraved small plates pasted down of Amor, the military camp of Wallenstein, children and exotic people, and 3 embroideries. Contemporary gold-tooled marbled calf with a lighter brown leather oval inset as a centrepiece in both boards, gold-tooled spine with red and green morocco labels lettered in gold "Denkmal der Freundschaft" and an initial "H" (= Heinrich) in a gold-tooled laurel wreath, gilt edges, marbled endpapers.
Description: 120 ff., irregularly paginated: some ff. apparently cut out, some added.Fascinating album amicorum of the German Captain Carl Gottlieb Heinrich (b. 1771) from Bischofswerda, east of Dresden in Saxony. Heinrich chose a military career and went - as so many other Germans - to the Netherlands in 1802 to enter into the service of the Batavian, later French Imperial, army. His career can be traced in the "Stamboek" (military registration book) held in the National Archives in The Hague: he was born 2 April 1771 in Bischofswerda. His father was Johan Christopf Heinrich (b. 1706); his mother Johanna Elizabeth (d. 1771) who died probably in childbirth (in the present album Johanna Magdalena signs as his (step-?) mother on p. 2). He had brown eyes, his nose and mouth were normal and he could speak German and Dutch. In 1804, he was a 1st Lieutenant Light Infantry, in 1805 he was with 2nd Regiment Jagers, in 1808 with the Garde Jagers, and in 1809 he was made Captain. Heinrich had been in the service of the French army since 1792, during which he was stationed in Flanders and Brabant.The stories of Heinrich's adventures in later life are told in the 91 entries in the present album, including 22 entries written in Dutch. The first entry on p. 6 was written by his brother F.C. Adolph Heinrich (Bautzen, 29 January 1802). Apparently he travelled the following months in the surroundings of Bischofswerda to pay ca. 25 farewell visits to family and friends in Bautzen, Dresden, Kamenz, Seeligstadt, Stolpen, and Struppen, before he left for the Netherlands, via Leipzig (19 May 1802) and Zwolle (29 May). He arrived in Kampen at the end June that same year and was garrisoned there until the spring of 1803 (entries from 26 June 1802 till 13 February 1803). Between 1804 and 1810, we find him in Harlingen (May-June 1804), Alkmaar (December 1804), The Hague (April 1806), Breda (July 1806), Overveen (July 1807), Haarlem (August 1807), Amsterdam (October 1807). In July 1810, Heinrich visited members of the Van Oldenbarnevelt (named Tullingh) family at their house Overheijde in Monster. At the end of 1810, he is in Nantes from where he would sail for Batavia in the Dutch East Indies, where he would arrive in June 1811. Once there, he is - together with his regiment - stationed in Weltevreden, just outside Batavia, and he arrived just in time to be ready to defend Java under the new Governor-General Janssen against the English. After the English easily defeated the Dutch, who subsequently lost their colony to England, Heinrich escaped via Surabaya to Bengal in January 1812 and from there he sailed to Europe. The interesting drawing of Jamestown on St. Helena is by J.D. van Schelle in memory of their journey back (Reading, 7 November 1813). In 1814, Heinrich is garrisoned back in the Netherlands, in Steenbergen, Zwolle, and The Hague. The last entry in the present album was written in Maastricht and dated 12 August 1818.Among the contributors - often very difficult to read in the German script (the so-called Fraktur Schrift) - are: F. Krager, G.F. Arentz, J.F. Geisler, Kerkhoff, E. Nieuwenhuis, H.P. de Wolf van Westerode, A.J. Heshuysen, Kruseman, H.M. Eekhout, F.J. Beckmen, Fr. Alberti, J. N.Dibbetz, Schilling, J. van Duynen, O.W. Ross.With an additional manuscript note (or extra entry) written in German on a separate sheet mounted on the back pastedown. The binding has been professionally restored along the spine, the boards are slightly scratched. Overall in very good condition.

Keywords: [403A2955597B] AUTOGRAPHS, DOCUMENTS & MANUSCRIPTS|[403A2955597B] AUTOGRAPHS, DOCUMENTS & MANUSCRIPTS -> [51701A3F7FF3] Alba Amicorum|[KCVDN0K9X7XL] MILITARY HISTORY|[KCVDN0K9X7XL] MILITARY HISTORY -> [KCVE796ZM45C] Military History 19th & 20th Century|